Table tennis | Manika rallies to stop Archana on day of upsets

With the prospect of defeat looming large, Manika Batra just about managed to find a new gear. Thereafter, she simply raced away with the last two games against Archana Kamath on the way to the semifinals of the National table tennis championship at Panchkula on Wednesday. In a contest, seen as the ‘final-before-the-final’, Archana dropped the first two games narrowly, claimed the next three, but lost her way from midway through the sixth. The final result read 13-11, 11-9, 4-11, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-4 in Manika’s favour.