WTT Contender: Manika, Sreeja in final round of singles qualifiers

Doha, March 2 : Young India paddler Sreeja Akula outshone her higher ranked opponent to progress into the last round of the womens singles qualifiers at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender on Tuesday.

Manika Batra too inched closer to qualifying on Tuesday.

She and Sreeja are now just a win away from making their way into the main draw.World No.150 from Hyderabad, Sreeja prevailed over world No.74 Vega Paulina of Chile in the previous round and sent Thailands 87th-ranked Orawan Paranang packing 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 in the third round.She will now take on Russias Mariia Tailakova in the final round.

Tailakova entered the last round with a 14-12, 11-8, 11-8 win over Indias Archana Kamath.Living up to her reputation, Commonwealth Games gold medallist and star Indian paddler Manika got the better of Romanias Irina Ciobanu 11-7, 15-13, 11-8 comfortably in the third round of womens singles qualifiers, and will face Ganna Gaponova of Ukraine in the last round.

Earlier, in the final round matches of mixed doubles qualifiers, Indian pair Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sutirtha Mukherjee grabbed a spot in the main draw after a straight-sets 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 victory against Puerto Ricos Daniel Gonzalez and Melanie Diaz.However, Indias other pair Achanta Sharath Kamal and Manika failed to take advantage of an early game lead and lost out to Russias Alexander Shibaev and Polina Mikhailova 11-9, 11-13, 11-13, 3-11.

Harmeet Desai also suffered a 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 2-11 defeat against Russias Alexander Shibaev in the third-round match of the mens singles qualifiers.Despite dominating the first two games, Desai couldnt hold his nerves and conceded an unexpected loss.