The Asian Table Tennis Championships being held in Astana, Kazakhstan were seen as a bold expedition for Indian women, when they embarked on the trip. And as has been the recent trend, the Indians continued punching well above their weight.
At the Paris Olympics in July, the team had made inroads, and finally at the Asian Championships, there was a medal to boast. With their 3-2 quarterfinal win over second seeds and Olympic bronze medallists Korea, India confirmed a medal at the tournament, regarded at par with the Olympics as it has all the powerhouses of table tennis.
Seeded sixth, they were underdogs against World No. 3 Korea which had the likes of 20-year-old World No. 8 Shin Yubin and World No. 16 Jeon Hijee. But the Koreans didn’t know what struck them.
Ayhika Mukherjee was the star winning the opener and decider, and Manika Batra pulled her weight putting India 2-0 ahead, both beating higher ranked opponents.
The Koreans are right up there, among the best in the world. First up was Ayhika against Yubin. At World No. 92, 84 places below Yubin, Ayhika shouldn’t have stood a chance but as one of the very few people who have beaten Yingsha this year, Ayhika would’ve told herself that she could stir a storm.
The scores were level at 1-1 after two games with Ayhika trailing 2-8 in the third. At this point, a player would normally try to take risks. Not Ayhika. Her calmness under pressure was the difference. She stuck to her game plan. She relentlessly defended Shin’s forehand attacks with backhand slices. She only attacked when the opportunity arose. With her anti-spin rubber, she played her shots close to the net which drew Shin into playing it long. When she got a whiff of a return that way even a high high or loose, she took the opportunity to turn and unleash her forehand topspin.
At the Paris Olympics in July, the team had made inroads, and finally at the Asian Championships, there was a medal to boast. (Ayhika Mukherjee instagram)
Manika then did what Manika does. Against the experienced left-handed Jihee, who won the WTT Doha Contender earlier this year, Manika matched her furious attack with a forehand attack herself. And then there was also her trademark twiddle that Jihee didn’t have an answer to.
India’s 2-0 lead in the tie soon vanished with Sreeja Akula, coming back from a 6-week injury layoff, losing the next match to Lee Eunhye in straight games and Manika, in her return rubber, taking Yubin the distance but losing the fifth game.
It was then up to Ayhika to give India the win of a lifetime and the 27-year-old, who lost her place in the Indian team at the Olympics to Archana Kamath, showed why she can be counted on in big-match situations. With nerves of steel, she fought back from a game down to beat Jihee 7-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-10 to give India the match and the tie.
Kamlesh Mehta, eight-time national champion and current secretary of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), told The Indian Express from Astana that this Indian women’s team no longer rallied around one superstar.
“What always happened was we had one star player and others would be dependent on her. For the longest time, it was Manika. But now, we have three-four players who are doing very well at the international level. We have five women in the World top 100 while earlier we had only one. I still feel it was the win over the Chinese players which was the booster shot for Indian TT where the girls showed that they can beat the best in the world,” he said.
Seeds sown
The seeds of India becoming a powerhouse in women’s table tennis were sown at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. It became a sapling by the time the Asian Games in 2023, and at the World TT Championships in Busan in February this year, it showed visible signs of bearing fruit.
When Manika Batra with her unorthodox pimpled rubber on her backhand first won gold in singles and then led the team to victory at the 2018 CWG, it was dismissed as a one-off. The TT world thought the rubber would soon be figured out.
When the Mukherjee duo of Ayhika and Sutirtha won an unprecedented bronze in women’s doubles at the Tokyo Asiad, the TT world was forced to take notice. India had never medalled in TT at the Asian Games before.
Nothing, however, shook the TT world like when Ayhika and Sreeja Akula (who like Manika, plays with long pips) stunned the top Chinese players – World No. 1 Sun Yingsha and then World No. 2 Wang Yidi respectively in their team tie at the ITTF World Team TT Championships in Busan. Though China fought back to eventually win that tie, the Indian women were never going to be taken lightly. The Chinese even needed a two-week camp on how to play against long pimples.
At Paris, they continued the fine run by reaching quarterfinals. Manika and Sreeja too had created history by reaching the Rd of 16 in the singles event too. At Astana, a bronze was sealed.
Next up – Japan
Being among the top-4 in Asia was the first hurdle that India only just passed, but to become an Asian powerhouse – their ultimate goal– they have to regularly beat the best of Asia. In the semifinal, they face World No. 2 Japan who have two players in the top-10 and the third is 12th.
They won’t be taking India easy though.
