Gold Coast: Manika Batra cruised to the semifinals of the women's singles even as experienced paddler Mouma Das ended her campaign of the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.
Manika, who played a stellar role in India's historic gold in the women's team event, notched up a win against Singapore's Yihan Zhou 4-1. The Delhi paddler hardly broke a sweat in the first three games, winning 11-5 11-6 11-2.
However, she was unable to finish the match as she stumbled in the fourth game 6-11 but sealed the match with a 11-9 win in the fifth game.
"I have played against Zhou in the women's team final, so I knew she would be prepared. I am playing the best table tennis of my career so far. I was very relaxed this entire match," Manika said later.
"I want to win the gold medal in women's singles and women's double events."
In the other women's singles, Mouma was ousted by Yu Mengyu of Singapore 13-15 7-11 5-11 11-7 5-11.
Madhurika Patkar also crashed out of the event as she lost to England's Kelly Sibley 9-11 8-11 11-2 3-11 11-8 6-11
In the men's singles draw, Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and G Sathiyan sealed quarterfinal berths.
Sharath beat Australia's Heming Hu 11-8 12-10 8-11 11-6 11-5 while Desai notched a win against Malaysia's Chee Feng LEONG 11-5 11-7 11-5 7-11 11-4 and Sathiyan's Nigerian opponent Segun Toriola retired after the first game 11-7.
"Hu was going for the big shots and it was annoying me. He was taking lots of risks," Sharath said.
"In yesterday's round of 32 game against Javen Choong (Malaysia), I took it too easy. I won 4-3, but I was a bit lost in my head. Today I had to put my head back together."
In the men's double's Sharath and Sathiyan reached the quarter finals as they outclassed the Sri Lankan pair of Buwaneka Jayasingha Mudiyanselage and Imesh Ranasingha 11-3 11-4, 12-10.
The pair of Desai and Sanil Shetty also posted a comfortably over Northern Ireland's Paul McCreery and Ashley Robinson 11-4 12-10 11-9 to book a quarterfinal berth.
In the women's double's Mouma and Manika reached the semifinals with a 4-0 win over England. They beat Tin-Tin HO Maria Tsaptsinos 12-14 11-3 11-7 11-6.
The other Indian pair of Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe beat Alicia Cote and Mo Zhang of Canada 11-6 11-7 14-12 to advance to the semifinals.