Saudi Smash 2024: Manika Batra's dream run ends after a quarterfinal defeat to World No. 5 Hina Hayata

The Saudi Smash 2024, featuring the crème de la crème of table tennis talents, has seen some incredibly intense and thrilling matches since it kicked off on May 1.

Manika Batra, India’s only remaining representative at the Saudi Smash 2024, saw her dream run come to an end after going down to Japan’s Hina Hayata in the quarterfinals of the USD 2,000,000 tournament.

A closer look at Manika Batra’s quarterfinal at the Saudi Smash 2024

Manika Batra took on Japan’s Hina Hayata in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles category. The 28-year-old Indian started off the match in an impressive fashion, winning the first set 11-7.

However, the break after the first game saw Hayata recoup and change tactics. The Japanese paddler started anticipating Batra’s shots and quickly wrapped up the second and third games to take a 2-1 advantage. The fourth set saw the Indian fight back, but the Japanese paddler narrowly won the game 13-11.

In what turned out to be a funny incident, both paddlers thought the match had concluded at 3-1 and shook hands, but the umpire called them back and told them it was a best-of-seven match since it was the quarterfinals. The match ended a set later, with Hayata winning the fifth set 11-2 to make it 4-1 and seal her place in the semifinals.

The final score of the 39-minute-long match read as 11-7, 6-11, 4-11, 11-13, 2-11 in favor of Hina Hayata.

Manika Batra’s journey in the tournament has been a set of thrilling victories before her defeat to Hina Hayata. She started her campaign with a convincing 3-0 triumph over Romania’s Andreea Dragoman.

However, it was in the subsequent rounds that Batra truly made her mark. In a stunning upset, the Indian paddler toppled World No. 2 Wang Manyu of China in an encounter that lasted 37 minutes. Despite dropping the first set, Batra stormed back to secure a memorable 3-1 victory (6-11, 11-5, 11-7, 12-10).

The Commonwealth Games medalist from India continued her stellar run, dispatching Germany’s Nina Mittelham, ranked 14th globally, in a straight-sets victory (11-6, 11-9, 11-7) in the pre-quarterfinals before losing to Hina Hayata to end her campaign at the tournament.