Paris 2024 Olympics Table Tennis Draw: Manika Batra vs Anna Hursey; Men's team to face China

The Paris 2024 Olympics Table Tennis draw has been announced on Wednesday. The competition is going to be held between July 27 and August 10. All five events - men's singles, women's singles, mixed doubles, men's team, and women's team will be played at the South Paris Arena.

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Manika Batra to face Anna Hursey

Indian table tennis player Manika Batra will face 18-year-old Anna Hursey of Great Britain in the preliminary round of the women's singles event at the Paris Olympics 2024.

18th seed Manika made it to the third round of the Tokyo Olympics in women's singles. This will be Batra's third consecutive appearance at the Summer Games after making her debut at Rio 2016. While Anna will make her Olympic debut.

Meanwhile, in another women's singles, 16th seed Sreeja Akula will face Sweden's Christina Kallberg in her round of 64 match. Kallberg competed in this event in Tokyo and lost in the preliminary round.

Men's team faces tough test

Indian table tennis players will face a tough test in the men's team event as they will take on four-time gold medalists People's Republic of China in the opening round.

Since the introduction of team events at the Olympics in 2008, China has won the gold medal in the men's event at all editions. India has qualified for the team events in table tennis at the Olympics for the first time.

Meanwhile, the women's team will face Romania in the round of 16. In the second round, they may face Germany, the Rio 2016 silver medallist.

Harmeet Desai to start campaign from preliminary round

In men's singles, veteran Sharath Kamal will face 27-year-old Deni Kozul of Slovenia in the first round. Kozul competes at Tokyo 2020, and Sharath Kamal is set to become a five-time Olympian. Meanwhile, Harmeet Desai will begin his men's singles campaign from the preliminary round. Desai will face Jordan's Zaid Abo Yaman.

The preliminary rounds in men's and women's singles will consist of three matches each. The winners of the preliminary round will qualify for the round of 64. If Harmeet Desai wins the preliminary round, he will face world No. 5 Félix Lebrun of France in the main draw.

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