Manika Batra Triumphs While Sreeja Akula Faces Tough Challenge at ITTF World Cup 2026

Day Two Highlights from the ITTF World Cup 2026

Macau [China], March 31: Indian table tennis players Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula experienced different fortunes on the second day of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Cup 2026 held in Macau.

Manika, currently ranked 47th in the women's category, achieved a thrilling 3-2 victory against the USA's Lily Zhang, who is ranked 42nd. Although Manika initially dominated the match, winning the first two games, Lily mounted a strong comeback, taking the third game and winning the fourth to push the match to a decisive fifth game, as reported by Olympics.com.

Demonstrating her experience as a three-time Olympian, Batra managed to secure a win in her final group stage match.

Conversely, Sreeja Akula, ranked 44th, started strong against Portugal's Fu Yu by winning the first game but ultimately fell short, losing 1-3 (8-11, 11-9, 15-13, 11-8) to the world number 48.

Sreeja's next challenge will be on Wednesday when she faces the formidable Wang Manyu of China, who holds the world number two ranking and is an Olympic gold medalist.

In the men's singles, Manav Thakkar, who lost his opening match to South Korea's Park Gang-hyeon, is set to compete against Truls Moregardh of Sweden, the Olympic silver medalist and current world number two, on Wednesday.

Historically, no Indian player has ever won a medal at the ITTF World Cup. Both Manika and Sreeja participated in the previous edition in 2025 but were unable to progress beyond the group stage.