PARIS: Indian boxer Nishant Dev sealed his spot in the quarterfinals, while paddler Sreeja Akula failed to make history after crashing out in the women’s singles event at the ongoing Paris Olympics.
The Indian pugilist managed to move into the final eight after a nervy affair against Ecuador’s Jose Rodriguez. He managed to win the fixture by a split decision verdict and sealed his spot in the men’s 71 kg quarterfinals.
While India tasted success in boxing, heartbreak was on the cards for the nation in table tennis. Sreeja, on her birthday, fell short against the world’s number one women’s ranked player, Yingsha Sun.
Akula had the opportunity to become the first Indian paddler to feature in the quarter-finals of table tennis at the Olympics. However, the challenge of beating China’s world number one turned out to be an impeccable task for the 26-year-old.
An inspired performance from Akula saw her dominate China’s paddler in the opening two games. Her initial performance indicated that she would walk out as the first paddler to achieve the feat. However, Akula succumbed to the prowess of Yingsha.
In the first game, Akula fetched four game points for herself, but Yingsha won six points in a row to take away the first game (10-12).
A similar situation unfolded in the second game as well. Akula found herself with a buffer of five points. But Yingsha proved the reason she holds the number one ranking and took seven points in a row to take a 2-0 lead over the Indian paddler (10-12).
Akula allowed Yingsha to assert her dominance, and in the next two games, she pulled off relentless attacking forehand and backhand shots.
Akula took a defensive approach to negate the attacking threat, but the intensity became too much to bear for the 26-year-old. She lost the third game by 8-11 and the fourth game by 3-11, which ended her run in the women’s singles event. (ANI)