Indian girls finish ninth in World Junior Table Tennis

Morocco: The Indian girls team finished ninth after beating Croatia 3-2 in the classification match at the 2013 World Junior Table Tennis Championships here Wednesday.

The team of Manika Batra, Suthirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee and Reeth Rishya Tennison managed to win their singles which helped the team claim the 9-10 play-off match. Both Ayhika Mukherjee and Manika Batra lost their rubbers to Jeger Mateja 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 6-11, 9-11 and Rakovac Lea 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 7-11 respectively. Reeth Rishya pulled one back beating Markati Paula 10-12, 15-13, 12-10, 11-7 to infuse fresh blood in the competition. Then Manika defeated Jeger Mateja 13-11, 11-5, 11-9 and Ayhika downed Rakova Lea 11-13, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 to stage a remarkable recovery. Earlier, India lost their both matches in stage II to Korea and Romania with identical score of 1-3.