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Asian Games: The Mukherjees script a miracle
Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee scripted one of the most astonishing results at this Asian Games from an Indian viewpoint
Cheng Meng is the reigning Olympic singles champion in table tennis with 12 World Championships medals. Wang Yidi has three of them. Together, the two Chinese women grabbed the doubles gold at this year's World Championships in Durban.
Ranked doubles world No. 2 and seeded second at the Asian Games, the stage was set for them to live up to their billing in Hangzhou. Until they ran into a couple of Indians. A couple of Mukherjees, to be precise.
Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee scripted one of the most astonishing results at this Asian Games from an Indian viewpoint, flattening and foxing Cheng and Wang 11-5, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, at their den no less, in the quarter-finals on Saturday. It ensured a first table tennis medal in women’s doubles for India from the continental showpiece, a bronze at least that could yet be bettered.
No mean feat, given Indian paddlers found some podium space in a Games and sport dominated by Asian powerhouses only in the previous 2018 edition with a men’s team and mixed doubles (Sharath Kamal-Manika Batra) bronze. No mean feat, given Chinese combos have swept all but one medal from the women's doubles finals in the last three Asian Games. No mean feat, given the Mukherjees, who come from the same city of Naihati and train together with Soumyadeep Roy and Poulomi Ghatak, got going as a doubles pair on the WTT circuit only last year and weren't selected for the 2022 Commonwealth Games or this year’s Worlds in May.
“Asian Games TT medal is equivalent to an Olympic medal, especially in women. What they have achieved today will go down in the books," said Roy, who coaches them at his academy in Kolkata.
That factor of being relatively lesser known among the elite at the international stage perhaps worked in their favour. The mighty Chinese pair — who hadn’t dropped a game until the quarters — came up against this Indian combo for the first time and walked off a bit flummoxed while their seated coach, the legendary Ma Lin, could only smile.
The recipe for the Chinese coup was cooked up thus: Ayhika's backhand unique rubber, the Dr. Neubauer Gorilla, would change the pace of the ball and disrupt the rhythm of the rallies before the two could take advantage with attacking finishing touches.
“Ayhika's rubber is anti-spin, which means whatever you throw at her, she gives the opposite spin back. The Chinese hitting a lot of top spins into the net was because there was a lot of back spin in the blocks of Ayhika. That was a game-changer. And Sutirtha supported her really well, hitting her backhand when needed," Neha Aggarwal Sharma, former India paddler, said.
“They (the Chinese pair) had difficulties in understanding the spin and length of the ball," Roy said. “Aykiha used her backhand rubber very well. But only depending on your rubber won’t work; you've got to back it up with an attacking mindset.”
Up against Chinese opponents in China, that’s easier said than done for even the most seasoned paddlers of the world, let alone two Indians who’ve only recently made their presence felt at that level.
“We don’t believe that we can beat these world champions. And they beat them on the biggest of stages when it mattered the most," Neha, who competed in the 2008 Olympics, said.
“The belief system has to be strong to beat China in China. That’s what we did for the last year and a half while working on their doubles game,” Roy said.
Despite growing up in the same city and sharing the academy through their younger days, Aykiha and Sutirtha began playing together consistently on the WTT tour only last year. It helped that they were “like sisters off the table”. “We have been playing together since childhood and so we know each other very well and can read each other's minds while playing,” Aykiha said in an earlier interview.
That showed when they made the 2022 WTT Contender Muscat final and won the WTT Contender Tunis title in June this year beating the world No. 4 Korean pair of Jeon Jihee and Shin Yubin and the fast-rising Japanese duo of Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara. Roy saw a potentially dangerous doubles team in his two trainees, and the hunch proved right.
“Doubles was going to be an important part of selection for the Indian team. So I thought if we can work on this, their combination could become lethal for the best in the world at times,” Roy said.
Like it was for the Chinese. Up next are North Korea's Cha Suyong and Pak Sugyong in the semi-finals on Monday, with the Indians having a shot at upgrading their bronze medal. History, in the most stunning fashion, has however already been written by the Mukherjees.
“It can’t get bigger than this," Neha said.
