Macau, April 14 -- Paris Olympians Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula kickstarted their International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Cup campaign with wins on Monday.

While the world number 30th Manika defeated the world number 186 Maylis Giret of New Caledonia 4-0 (11-1, 11-2, 11-6, 11-4) in the Group 16 match, the world number 34 Akula beat Australia's Constantina Psihogios, 68th in the women's singles table tennis rankings, 3-1 (11-9, 11-4, 11-8, 6-11), as per Olympics.com.

Manika's next challenge will be the Brazil's Bruna Takahashi, while Akula will lock horns with three-time Olympian and current European Games champion Bernadette Szocs of Romania in her final group stage match.

The World Cup is held in two stages, group stage an...