Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg) powered into the pre-quarterfinals with a superb tactical victory over Dominican Republic’s Miguelina Hernandez Garcia, but Manish Kaushik (63kg) faced disappointment following a hard-fought opening-round loss here on Sunday.
The 38-year-old Mary Kom, who is a 2012 Olympic bronze-medallist and a multiple-time Asian champion, prevailed 4-1 against a rival who is 15 years her junior and a Pan American Games bronze-medallist.
But Manish, a Commonwealth Games silver-medallist and a World Championship bronze-winner, went down 1-4 to Britain’s Luke McCormack in an edge-of-the-seat clash.
“I have all the medals in my hand. Olympic medal (bronze) from 2012, Commonwealth Games gold, six gold medals from World Championships. It’s not easy to count them, but the difficult part is continuously winning and performing,” she said.
“...what is left is the Olympic gold medal. That is what is driving me and pushing me to carry on. I am trying my best, if I am able to get it then I will be so grateful, but if not then I will still be so happy for all the medals I have won in the past,” she added.
In table tennis, Manika Batra made a stunning comeback against world No. 32 Margaryta Pesotska to reach the women’s singles third round but Sathiyan Gnanasekaran succumbed to the pressure on his debut to exit the men’s singles competition.
Manika Batra hits a return to Margaryta Pesotska in Tokyo on Sunday. AP/PTI
Manika, ranked 62, made a remarkable comeback after losing the first two games to prevail 4-11, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7 in a second-round match that lasted 57 minutes.
She meets Austria’s Sofia Polcanova on Monday for a place in the round of 16.
Like her first-round match, she did not want national coach Soumyadeep Roy in her corner on Sunday but her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape was seen in the gallery.
However, the way she fought throughout the game, it showed she was supremely confident about her abilities and did not any need any courtside support.
Earlier, 26th seed Sathiyan had a commanding 3-1 lead but lost four games in a row to lose 3-4 to world No. 94 Siu Hang Lam from Hong Kong.
