Sreeja Akula and Manav Thakkar lost their respective matches as India’s campaign in the ITTF World Cup 2026 ended on Wednesday in Macau, People’s Republic of China.
Telangana’s Sreeja Akula, who is employed with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), exited the ITTF World Cup after losing her second match of the tournament 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-3) against world No. 2 and Olympic gold medallist Wang Manyu of the People’s Republic of China.
Manika, Sreeja and Manav spearhead Indian challenge at ITTF World Cup 2026
Sreeja Akula, 44th in the women’s rankings, had also lost her first match in the tournament against Olympian Fu Yu of Portugal. Only the top 16 group toppers qualify for the round of 16 stage.
Manav Thakkar, 39th in the men’s singles rankings, lost 3-1 (11-5, 3-11, 11-7, 11-5) against Olympic silver medallist and World No. 2 Truls Möregårdh of Sweden.
After dropping the opening game, Manav Thakkar dominated the second and stayed locked at 6-all in the third before Truls Möregårdh edged ahead to regain control.
The fourth game began on even terms at 4-all. However, Truls Möregårdh swiftly shifted gears, notching four consecutive points to open up a decisive cushion and seal the contest.
Hyderabad’s Somnath Ghosh appointed as coach for India’s TT team for World Cup
Manav Thakkar had also lost his opening match in the tournament against the Republic of Korea’s Park Gang-hyeon on Monday.
Manika was the only Indian to win a match
Olympian and world No. 47 Manika Batra was the only Indian to win a match at the Table Tennis World Cup after beating Lily Zhang of the USA in her second clash. Batra had lost her tournament opener against world No. 5 Miwa Harimoto of Japan.
Miwa Harimoto then beat Lily Zhang 3-0 in the final group match to progress to the knockouts.
No Indian table tennis player has ever won a medal at the ITTF World Cup. Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula also competed in the 2025 edition of the tournament but failed to make it past the group stage.
