‘Greatest day for Indian table tennis’: Ayhika Mukherjee, Sreeja Akula score stunning wins over Chinese World No 1 & No 2

Indian table Tennis: These Championships are vital for India as it’s a qualifier for the Paris Olympics later this year. If they manage to reach the quarterfinals it guarantees a team spot at the Summer Games.

In the wee hours of Friday morning in Busan, Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula produced something incredible. The two Indian paddlers beat the top two players in the world – No 1 Sun Yingsha and No 2 Wang Yidi – in their respective singles matches of their Group 1 encounter against China at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships being held in Busan.

“It’s the greatest day for Indian table tennis. Beating the Chinese World No. 1 and World No. 2 in a single day is stunning. It would’ve been even better had we won this match but these two results are indeed phenomenal,” beams Kamlesh Mehta, eight-time national champion and the General Secretary of the TTFI.

The strong Chinese team ultimately fought back to win the match as Manika Batra lost both her matches to World No. 4 Wang Manyu and Yingsha while Ayhika couldn’t quite pull off another upset against Manyu in the decider.

Even though India lost the tie, beating China’s top players, considered unthinkable for Indians till very recently, is bound to send ripples across the table tennis world. Former India player Neha Aggarwal Sharma underlining the importance of the win said: “If you beat China, people go crazy and mind you, entire China is taking note of it.”

These Championships are vital for India as it’s a qualifier for the Paris Olympics later this year. If they manage to reach the quarterfinals it guarantees a team spot at the Summer Games. In a group that has Hungary, Spain, Uzbekistan and China, India needs to finish in the top three to reach the knock-outs, and a second place will help with a better dra.

For that to happen, India would expect Ayhika and Sreeja to continue their giant-killing spree. Ready to take over the mantle of Indian women’s table tennis from Manika, the talented duo have contrasting personalities.

Ayhika, who calls herself an extrovert, hit headlines last year when she teamed up with Sutirtha Mukherjee to win a historic women’s doubles bronze medal at the Asian Games, where they beat the reigning world champions in their backyard. Her international career has seen a huge upswing in the past year and a half, especially since she recovered from a career-threatening lower back injury.

Today the 26-year-old floored her fancied opponent, Yingsha, with her forehand attack. She saved three game points in the opener, to win 12-10. The second game was one-way traffic as Sun breezed through 11-2 and then had a 9-5 lead in Game 3. Ayhika once again fought back, taking the third game 13-11. In the fourth game, the Indian finished strongly with five points in a row from 6-6, handing a first-ever defeat for Yinghsa in team World Championship events for China, as per WTT.

Sreeja, on the other hand, is much more soft-spoken and prefers to keep to herself. The 25-year-old, who won the 2022 Commonwealth Games mixed doubles title partnering Sharath Kamal, won her first WTT tournament at Corpus Christi last month before reaching the quarterfinal of the Goa Star Contender that saw her break into the top-50 of world rankings.

Against Wang Yidi, Sreeja didn’t show any sign of nervousness, even when she let her 8-2 lead slip in the third game to take it into tiebreaks. That she managed a straight-games win over Yidi is beyond exemplary.

Sreeja pocketed the first two games 11-7 and 11-9 with her forehand working like a dream. She led 8-2 in the third but Yidi fought back to have a game point at 10-9. It was the forehand that once again came to her rescue as Sreeja made it 10-10, and it would be a magnificent inside-out winner that gave her a match point that she converted.

“India was leading 2-1 against China — this statement itself has given the whole team a lot of confidence. We had a very good start with Ayhika’s win and the team spirit was very high which motivated me,” says Sreeja. “I have mixed emotions because, although I am happy I won, I am extremely sad that it wasn’t enough to win the tie, but now we know we can take on the best.”

While there has been a lot of talk of the varying kinds of defensive rubbers that Indian women’s players use, they showed on Friday that they are capable of producing some stunning attacking play too. Ayhika hardly used her defensive anti-spin rubber on her backhand and attacked with her short pimpled rubber (attacking) on the forehand. Sreeja also barely used her long pimpled backhand. Instead, she was extremely swift as she hits winners.

Incredible as the results on their own are, Indian table tennis must see this as a springboard. Neha believes events on Friday send a message to the world that we’re here to stay, but the players must need to be more consistent. “It’s quite exciting how we’ve gradually improved just in time for the Paris Olympics. What’s great is that it’s not just only about Manika anymore,” she says.

With Thanks Reference to: https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/table-tennis-world-team-cships-ayhika-mukherjee-stuns-world-no-1-sun-yingsha-sreeja-akula-beats-no-2-wang-yidi-9164589/ and