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Ayhika Mukherjee, Sreeja Akula stun world No 1 and 2 as beaten India rattle China
The powerhouses restored order to eke out a 3-2 victory in the end, but not before they were rattled unlike too many times in the recent past.
In table tennis, the Chinese aren't used to this. Their women's team blazed to the 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships gold medal without dropping a single match. Sun Yingsha has never been beaten in an event of such kind, winning all her 26 singles matches in international team tournaments.
Enter Ayhika Mukherjee and Sreeja Akula, with their Friday blockbusters featuring the biggest wins of their singles careers.
The two stunned World No 1 Sun and No 2 Wang Yidi, respectively, to hand India a jaw-dropping 2-1 lead against China in their opening encounter of this World Team Table Tennis Championships in Busan. The powerhouses restored order to eke out a 3-2 victory in the end, but not before they were rattled unlike too many times in the recent past.
This is now the second time in less than six months that Indian women have come out on top in encounters with the Chinese — a feat considered almost improbable in women's TT — after Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee went past Wang and Cheng Meng for last year's Asian Games doubles bronze.
It was Ayhika, with her unique Dr. Neubauer Gorilla backhand rubber, that set the Sun on the world No 1's winning march with a 3-1 (12-10, 2-11, 13-11, 11-6) outcome that gave India the head start. India's top-ranked Manika Batra went down to world No 4 Wang Manyu 1-3 (3-11, 8-11, 15-13, 6-11) before Sreeja, fresh into the top 50, got the team back up with a clinical 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 13-11) triumph over No 2 Wang. Manika again managed to snatch a game yet not the match in her 1-3 defeat to Sun (3-11, 6-11, 13-11, 9-11), while Manyu remained too good for Ayhika in the 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-6) decider.
The defeat, especially from the position they found themselves in, would pinch India, but also pump in belief for their remaining group matches — they take on Hungary next on Sunday — as they seek a quarter-final finish and a Paris Olympics quota from this event.
Ayhika, ranked 155 in singles, kept the top-ranked player in a daze with her change of pace from the anti-spin backhand rubber, mixed by some terrific forehand winners especially off returns. The Indian trailed in every game, and still found a way to edge ahead. From being 3-5 and 7-10 in the opening game, Ayhika saved three game points and sealed it winning a rally where every shot came off her backhand.
Sun kept her at bay in the second game but Ayhika's combination of backhand slices followed by fast forehands proved effective in the third game, where she again zoomed ahead from 5-9 down. Sun sure was feeling the heat, getting a card for time-wasting in the fourth game and dishing out a service error at 6-6. From 8-6, Ayhika delivered three cracking forehands and a first bump in the end to seal the incredible win.
"I really feel great beating Sun Yingsha. Today was my day... I was confident and I just told myself that I should enjoy the match," Ayhika was quoted as saying by WTT.
World No. 1 foxed by Ayhika’s change of pace, the world No. 2 was blown away by Sreeja’s forehand. Sreeja said she has been working on that facet of her game to go with her long-pimped backhand rubber, and in the first two points itself against Wang, her big forehands were out. The 25-year-old Indian was bossing the forehand duels with the 2021 Worlds singles bronze medallist — like to go 9-7 up in the first game or reduce a 1-4 deficit in the second. Working into rallies with her backhand and unleashing the forehand the moment she got Wang out of position, a composed Sreeja pocketed the second game despite trailing for most of it.
The Indian was off to a 6-1 lead in the third on the back of a forehand winner, and even though Wang got back in it to set herself up for a game point, Sreeja saved it with another big forehand and eventually got the job done in straight games.
Against a Chinese, that’s a rare sight. Even rarer? Defeating two of them in a day.
