In a historic moment for Indian table tennis, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee secured India's first-ever women's doubles medal in all the editions of the Asian Games so far.
The duo's remarkable journey reached its peak when they emerged victorious against the reigning world champions, Chen Meng and Wang Yidi, in the quarterfinals with an impressive scoreline of 11-5, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9.
Ayhika Mukherjee, reflecting on their remarkable victory, stated,
"The match was really amazing, and we were not scared at all. They are amazing, the Chinese players, the world's best, but we were at our best."
It is only India’s third medal in table tennis at the Asian Games, the other two being the men's team and the mixed doubles duo of Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra’s bronze medals. However, the women's doubles medal, now guaranteed by Sutirtha and Ayhika, marks a significant milestone in the country's history of the sport.
Manika Batra crashes out of women's singles, Manush Shah-Manav Thakkar bow out of men's doubles
Commonwealth Games gold medalist Manika Batra, one of the country's leading paddlers, faced a tough battle in the women's singles competition, where she was defeated by China's Yidi Wang with a scoreline of 8-11, 12-10, 6-11, 4-11, 14-12, 5-11. Manika's defeat marked the end of India's campaign in the singles event at Hangzhou.
Manika struggled with her backhand throughout the match, a distinct weakness that Wang skillfully exploited. Despite winning the second and fifth sets, Manika largely relied on unforced errors from her opponent. The match ultimately concluded with a backhand error from Manika.
In addition to Manika's singles disappointment, India's men's doubles pair of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar also faced a tough challenge. They were defeated by South Korean pair Woojin Jang and Jonghoon Lim with a score of 8-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11 in the quarterfinals.
The Indian youngsters put up a hard fight and took the game to a thrilling 9-9 in the last set, but the duo just fell short against the No. 1 ranked Korean opponents.
Manush Shah shared his thoughts on the experience of facing the world's top-ranked Korean pair, stating,
"They are probably the toughest opponents. We had some strategies and moves that we wanted to execute, and which we did. But in the end, we couldn't prevail."
With Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee's historic women's doubles medal and a brilliant performance by Manush and Manav against the top-ranked doubles pair, Indian table tennis looks to be on the rise, and the country hopes the Indian paddlers will win a lot of medals in the tournaments to come.
