CWG 2018 Star Manika Batra Beats Top Seed, Enters Gold Medal Match

Manika Batra will now fight for the gold medal in the women’s singles final later on Saturday.

Table tennis player Manika Batra in action earlier in the week.

(Photo: PTI)

Manika Batra has emerged as one of India’s biggest success stories of this Commonwealth Games, advancing to her third gold medal match on Saturday in Gold Coast.

Manika beat world number four and top seed Tianwei Feng of Singapore 4-3 (12-10, 5-11, 11-8, 5-11, 5-11, 11-9, 13-11) in the women’s singles semifinal.

She raced to a 2-1 lead against the three-time Olympic medallist before losing two games in succession and trailing 2-3. However, Manika bounced back to bag the next two games and close the match with a 4-3 scoreline.

In the final later today, Manika will take on Singapore’s Mengyu Yu, who defeated Canada's Mo Zhang 4-1 (11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5) in the other semi-final.

The match will also be Manika’s third gold medal match of the 2018 Commonwealth Games after she helped the women’s team bag the gold and then won the women’s doubles silver on Friday.