Ahmedabad: India’s Manika Batra registered three successive wins even as Sharath Kamal’s hopes of a World Cup berth were quashed on a day of mixed results for the Indian contingent at the Asian Cup table tennis tournament in Ahmedabad.

Manika will cross swords with Japan’s Miu Hirano in the challenge round for a quarterfinal berth. Other than Sharath, Harmeet Desai’s challenge also ended tonight.

This was Sharath’s worst Asian Cup outing, having failed to win a single match in the group stage. Harmeet on the other hand showed some fight as he managed to win one out the three matches.

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Manika, who is playing in her first Asian Cup, will have her task cut out against Hirano, who is seeded second in the tournament.

Manika had beaten 17-year-old Aia Mohamed of Qatar 13-11, 11-8, 11-7 in the morning. She later downed Neda Shasavari 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 before defeating Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-8 in a tense encounter.

Sharath first went down to Korea’s Lee Sangsu 0-3 in men singles. He was handed another loss in the second round to China’s Lin Gaoyuan. In the evening session he was edged by Mizutani, who prevailed 11-5, 11-3, 8-11, 11-8.

Qualifiers

Advanced to Quarter-finals

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Women
Group A: Zhu Yuling (CHN), Doom Hoi Kem (HKG).
Group B: Liu Shiwen (CHN), Cheng I-Ching (TPE).
Group C: Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN), Chen Szu-Yu (TPE).

Men
Group A: Koki Niwa (JPN), Fan Zhendong (CHN).
Group B: Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE), Jeong Sanguen (KOR).
Group C: Jun Mizutani (JPN), Lin Gaoyuan (CHN).

Playoff Challenge

Women: Miu Hirano (JPN) vs Manika Batra (IND); Lee Ho Ching (HKG) vs Su Hyowon (KOR).
Men: Noshad Alamiyan (IRI) vs Lee Sangsu (KOR), Nima Alamian (IRI) vs Chen Chien-An (TPE).