India loses to Germany in women’s table tennis team event

India's women's table tennis team exits Olympics after 3-2 loss to Germany in quarterfinals at Paris Arena.

India bowed out of the women’s team event after losing 3-2 to a superior Germany in the quarterfinals of the Olympics at the South Paris Arena’s table tennis venue in Paris on Wednesday (August 7, 2024).

The 11th-ranked India, which qualified in the team event for the first time and creditably reached the last eight, could not match the Germans’ well-planned and controlled performance.

The doubles pair of Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath could not offer much resistance against Yuan Wan-Xiaona Shan in the first game. The two combined better to play some fine shots and benefitted from the Germans’ errors to make it 1-1.

The Indians led 9-6 in the third game when Wan hit it out, but Sreeja-Archana could not gather two more points and saw the Germans regain their lead.

The Germans’ superb cross court shots put them ahead and helped them seize initiative.

In the first singles encounter, 25th-ranked Manika Batra went 1-0 up as World No.100 Annett Kaufmann made some mistakes. But Annette bounced back to have six game points secure the next as Manika made several errors.

The 18-year-old German southpaw raised her game and played excellent shots to tame Manika in the next two.