Indian table
tennis star Manika Batra on Sunday dismissed the claim made by Table Tennis
Federation of India (TTFI) that she did not report to the federation when national
coach Soumyadeep Roy allegedly asked her to throw a match during the Olympic
qualifier in March. Manika Batra made the allegations against Soumyadeep Roy when
she was questioned on why the national coach was not by her side during Olympic
matches. TTFI secretary Arun Banerjee has questioned the timing of her
allegation.

Also Read | Manika Batra alleges national coach asked her to fix Tokyo Olympics qualifier

In her response to
the show-cause notice served by TTFI, Manika Batra stated that national coach
Soumyadeep Roy had asked her to fix a match and Doha and that she had “promptly”
reported the matter to the federation which did not take any action.   

Hailing from Naraina Vihar in Delhi, Batra started playing table tennis at the age of four. After winning a state-level under-8 tournament, she decided to train under coach Sandeep Gupta. Her elder sister Anchal and elder brother Sahil both played table tennis. 

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The 6-feet tall player turned down numerous modelling offers. She studied at Jesus and Mary College for a year before dropping out to concentrate on table tennis. Batra became the first Indian woman to win gold in the singles event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

After winning a silver medal in the U-21 category of the Chile Open, Batra represented India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow. She crashed out of the quarter-finals.  The 26-year-old won three medals at the 2015 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships. She won a silver in the women’s team event as well as the women’s doubles event with Ankita Das and bronze in the women’s singles event.

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Manika Batra qualified for the women’s singles event of the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, she crashed out of the first round. 

In 2018, she became the only Indian to receive ‘The Breakthrough Star Award’ by ITTF. Batra has been awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award.