Desai, Batra off to winning start

Ace Indian paddlers Manika Batra and Harmeet Desai made an impressive return to the international circuit by registering straight-game victories in their respective qualifying round-2 matches at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender series here on Monday. Batra, the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, registered a 12-10 14-12 11-8 victory over Spain's Sofia-Xuan Zhang in women's singles, while world no. 73 Desai notched up an easy 11-5 12-10 11-6 win over compatriot Anthony Amalraj to progress to the third round of the men's singles qualifiers.