Anna Hursey put up a valiant fight before losing in five games on her Olympic debut against world No 28 Manika Batra of India.

The first Welsh athlete to compete for Team GB in table tennis, Hursey gave up more than 70 places to Batra in the world rankings, but the gap was barely noticeable.

The teenager found herself 3-0 down, though could easily have been ahead as the margin of each game was close.

She narrowed the gap by taking the fourth in fine style, 11-9, but her opponent – who beat Tin-Tin Ho at the same stage of the Tokyo Olympics – rallied to complete a 4-1 (11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5) victory.

Attention now turns to Liam Pitchford’s opening match against Vicky Wu of Fiji at noon UK time on Monday.

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After the match, in the media Mixed Zone, Anna said: “It’s great to go out there and have the experience, how it feels when I’m playing – the crowd, the environment.

“It was quite a close game. She’s had a lot more experience than me, she’s a higher-ranked player, quite an awkward style for me, but I’m pretty happy with how I played.

“All the Indians have quite an awkward style, and even some of the Chinese are struggling with it, so it was quite a tough draw for me.

“Once the draw came out, we tried our best to adapt to this style and tried to play a bit with long pimples.”