India's historic campaign in Table Tennis singles at the Paris Olympics ended following Manika Batra's meek surrender to higher-ranked Japanese Miu Hirano and Sreeja Akula's fighting defeat to world number one Yingshaw Sun on her birthday, on Wednesday.
For the first time India had two singles players competing for quarter-final berths at the Games. Both players had chances to take games against their superior opponents but lacked consistency and finishing skills.
Manika become the first Indian to progress to the pre-quarter-finals at the Olympics on Monday and Sreeja, who turned 26 on Wednesday, joined her senior colleague in the Round of 16 with a 4-2 win over Singapore's Jian Zeng.
Up against Miu, who has been in tremendous form, Manika lost 6-11, 9-11, 14-12, 8-11, 6-11, while, later in the day, Sreeja produced a valiant fight against Sun before losing 10-12, 10-12, 8-11, 3-11 in her Round of 16 match.
Sreeja could have made her 26th birthday even more memorable had she taken her chances in the second game in which she had five game points but lost six in a row to concede the game, succumbing to the Chinese onslaught.
To her credit, she ran her superior rivals close in the first two games but could not cope with the ferocious returns of the Chinese.
After taking the lead from 6-10, it did not take the Chinese much to close the match even as Sreeja pulled off a few fantastic winners.
India’s players will now compete in the team events.
Manika enjoyed healthy leads in game two and three but Miu switched gears with ease to prevent the Indian from scripting more history.
"I could have put in more effort. I was not happy with the way I started. I am not happy internally. I got confidence after the third game but she played at a good level. It hurts. Probably I was trying too much to win. I had to be calmer," Manika said after the match.
The Indian star rued that she could not play to her strengths and that was a major reason for her loss.
"My forehand was just not coming. I don't know why. It happens. I can be sad today, but I have to be ready for the country for the team event," she said.
Manika lost the first game in a jiffy but restricted her errors, and played more aggressively to zoom to a 5-1 lead in the second.
The Japanese closed the gap by using her pacy strokes, which Manika struggled to handle. She was put on the back foot as Miu took a 9-7 lead. A backhand error from Miu made it 9-9. Manika handed her rival a game point by hitting an angled forehand out. A repeat of the shot put her down 0-2 in the match.
The Indian ace had a great chance to mount a comeback as Miu hit a flurry of unforced errors in the third game, especially from the backhand side. Manika had a commanding 7-2 lead but Miu yet again erased the deficit to make it 9-9. The Indian held her nerves to save three game points.
Miu hit a backhand long to give the Indian her first game point and netted the next shot to hand a new lease of life to her opponent.
The 29-year-old Delhi player changed her approach, adding a tinge of aggression in the game in which she trailed 2-6 but fought back resiliently. She logged four straight points to level the score.
Manika hit a lot of shots on the backhand of her rival but Miu was up for the challenge and returned extremely well. She found her first game point when Manika hit a forehand out at 8-9. A backhand error on the next point gave a 3-1 lead to the Japanese.
The fifth game was one-way traffic, with Miu racing to a 5-1 lead in no time as unforced errors continued to come from Manika's racquet. She closed the gap to make it 6-8. However, two backhand errors gave Miu four match points and sealed the match when Manika hit her forehand long.
Earlier, Sreeja rallied to enter the pre-quarter-finals after a hard-fought 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10 win over Zeng.
