The 29-year-old, who clinched gold on the 2018 Commonwealth Video games, secured a commanding 4-0 victory towards the higher-ranked French participant Prithika Pavade in Paris.
Manika recorded 11-9, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7 victory towards her 19-year-opponent Pavade whose dad and mom have been initially from Puducherry earlier than shifting to France in 2003.
Manika surpassed her earlier finest efficiency from the Tokyo Olympics, the place she grew to become the primary Indian girl to achieve the spherical of 32 in singles competitors.
By advancing additional than the spherical of 32, Manika has set a brand new benchmark for Indian girls’s desk tennis on the Olympic degree.
Her accomplishment comes after Achanta Sharath Kamal, who had additionally reached the spherical of 32 in males’s singles throughout the Tokyo Olympics.
Regardless of being ranked twenty eighth on the earth, 10 positions beneath her opponent Pavade, Manika showcased her abilities and willpower to safe a spot within the subsequent spherical.
