Manika Batra advances to pre-quarters at WTT Champions Montpellier

India's table tennis star Manika Batra performed brilliantly to enter the women's singles pre-quarterfinals of the WTT Champions by defeating America's Lily Zhang 3-0 in Montpellier, France on Wednesday. Manika, who created history by becoming the first Indian to reach the singles pre-quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics, took less than 22 minutes to win 11-4, 11-8, 12-10. Four-time Olympian Zhang, who had also reached the pre-quarterfinals in Paris, fought hard to make a comeback in the third game but Manika's consistency and accuracy saw her off.

The Indian won a total of 34 points compared to Zhang's 22 and she was particularly strong on her opponent's serve, winning 14 points from the Chinese-American.

Manika will face eighth seeded Romanian Bernadette Szocs and the winner of Thailand's Orwan Paranang.

Sreeja Akula is the second Indian in the main draw and will face Pan American champion Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico later in the day.