India's table tennis campaign ends at Paris Olympics after women's team loses 1-3 to Germany

NEW DELHI: Archana Kamath put up a brief resistance before India's women's table tennis team was defeated 1-3 by a superior Germany in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics, ending their campaign on Wednesday. In the opening doubles match, the Indian duo of Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath lost to the German pair of Yuan Wan and Xiona Shan 5-11, 11-8, 10-12, 6-11. Sreeja and Archana were competitive until the third game but ultimately lost it on deuce and the match slipped away after that.Manika Batra then faced Annett Kaufmann in the first singles match. Although Manika won the first game, she could not maintain her form and lost the next three games, resulting in a 11-8, 5-11, 7-11, 5-11 loss. This gave Germany a 2-0 lead in the tie.Archana provided a glimmer of hope for India in the second singles match. She held off Germany's charge briefly by defeating Xiona Shan 19-17, 1-11, 11-5, 11-9.However, the third singles match saw Kaufmann dominating Sreeja 11-6, 11-7, 11-7, thereby sealing the tie for Germany and securing their semifinal berth.On Monday, the Indian women's team, comprising Manika, Sreeja, and Archana, had achieved a thrilling victory over higher-ranked Romania with a 3-2 score to enter the quarterfinals.On Tuesday, the Indian men's table tennis team, led by veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal, suffered a 0-3 loss to the formidable Chinese team in the pre-quarterfinals.Both Manika and Sreeja made history by becoming the first Indian players to reach the round of 16 in the individual event at the Olympics. However, they could not progress beyond that stage.The Paris Games marked the first instance where India competed in the team event at the Olympics. The team events in table tennis were introduced at the 2008 Beijing Games.