Sreeja Akula. (Picture Credit: AP)
A fiery Akula started off a bit shaky, but recouped in sublime fashion to put away her Singaporean opponent in six games of 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10 to march onwards into the round of 16.
The Indian women continue to impress with the table tennis paddles as youngster Sreeja Akula clinched her win against Singapore’s Jian Zeng in six games to progress onto the Round of 16 in the Women’s Table Tennis Singles event on Wednesday.
A fiery Akula started off a bit shaky, but recouped in sublime fashion to put away her Singaporean opponent in six games of 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10 to march onwards into the round of 16.
The bout started off with an intense battle between both Sreeja and Zeng, as the Singaporean kept it tight till the very end to ultimately edge out the Indian and seal a close 11-9 win.
Akula looked shaky coming into the second game as well, as Zeng piled on the pressure unrelentingly. But, the World No.16 Akula wouldn’t budge, and would battle it out yet again in an intense game that went all the way to a tirbreaker, where the Indian ultimately edged out Zeng 12-10.
This was all the momentum that the young Indian Akula needed, as she would go on a blitz, completely dismantling her opponent in the next game to seal a seamless 11-4 win and to take a 2-1 lead.
There was no stopping Akula at this point, and Zeng’s replies looked meek to say the least, as the Indian one again raced to a smooth win of 11-5.
Facing elimination, Zeng found another gear, as she kept the fifth game tight out the gate, taking the slender lead as Akula trailed 4-5.
But, with the finish line in her sights, Akula wouldn’t give in, as the duo kept tying up the game till 7-7, when the youngster lost focus and went down by 2 points to give Zeng a 9-7 lead.
But the youngster’s spiritied fight would ultimately lead to her tying the game up at 10-10, but Zeng would hold onto her nerves and seal the nail-biting 12-10 win as Akula’s lead dwindled to 3-2.
A rejuvenated Zeng would take the fight to Akula in the sixth game, edging the Indian out to maintain a slender one-point lead. But, Akula would keep it tight, tying the game up continually till it was 10-10, as the paddlers went on to the tie-break, where Akula smashed two point straight to win it 12-10 and seal the match 4-2.
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