Macau [China], April 14 : Paris Olympians Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula kickstarted their International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Cup campaign with wins on Monday.
While the world number 30th Manika defeated the world number 186 Maylis Giret of New Caledonia 4-0 (11-1, 11-2, 11-6, 11-4) in the Group 16 match, the world number 34 Akula beat Australia's Constantina Psihogios, 68th in the women's singles table tennis rankings, 3-1 (11-9, 11-4, 11-8, 6-11), as per Olympics.com.
Manika's next challenge will be the Brazil's Bruna Takahashi, while Akula will lock horns with three-time Olympian and current European Games champion Bernadette Szocs of Romania in her final group stage match.
The World Cup is held in two stages, group stage and knockouts. The men's and women's players have been divided into 16 groups featuring three players each and the group toppers will make it to the knockouts.
India does not have any participants in the men's draw.
The group stage matches have four games each and players will be ranked based on the overall win-loss ratio across both fixtures and players with the best ratio in terms of games won across both their matches will qualify for the knockouts.
Manika and Sreeja are the only Indian representatives at the ITTF World Cup.
The knockout stage will kickstart from Thursday and will be held in best-of-seven games. The World Cup will continue on Sunday. India would be aiming for their first-ever medal win in the tournament.
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