WTT Champions Montpellier: Manika Batra Stuns Bernadette Szocs to Reach Quarter-Final

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India's Manika Batra stunned eigth seed Bernadette Szocs of Romania to reach the WTT Champions Montpellier women's singles quarter-final at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier, France on Friday (October 25).

The world number 30 Indian Batra saw off the world no. 14 Romanian Szocs with a 3-1 (11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 11-9) victory in the women's singles pre-quarterfinal contest that lasted for 29 minutes.

This was Batra's second win against Szocs in 2024, having beaten the Romanian paddler in the Paris Olympics women's team quarter-final contest that helped India to a 3-2 win. Overall, Batra now leads 6-5 in her head to head meetings with Szocs.

The 29-year-old edged the opening game before the Romanian bounced back to take the second game and levelled the match at 1-1. The Indian then responded by saving two game points in the closely contested third game.

Szocs fought back after trailing 4-7 in the must-win fourth game, which also ended in the favour of Batra, who booked a quarter-final showdown with China's Qian Tianyi. The Chinese paddler sealed her quarterfinal berth by seeing off her compatriot Wang Yidi 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 13-11) in the round of 16 match.

Batra, who opened her WTT Champions Montpellier campaign with a dominant 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 12-10) win over USA's Lily Zhang, will take on Tianyi in the last eight match on Saturday (October 26). It's all square at 1-1 in their two previous meetings.

The former Commonwealth Games champion Batra had got the better of Qian in the WTT Star Contender Doha in 2022, while the Chinese avenged that loss in WTT Star Contender Goa in 2023.

Batra is the lone Indian to reach the quarterfinal, while the country's other player in fray, Sreeja Akula bowed in the opening round of the women's singles event in Montpellier.

The 26-year-old Indian, who entered the tournament as world number 25, went down 3-2 (6-11, 11-7, 11-1, 8-11, 11-8) to World No. 13 Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico in the first round.