The pair of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee continued to create historical past, securing a bronze medal after dropping their semifinal match on the Asian TT Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan on Sunday.
The duo had no reply to Japan’s Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara and misplaced in straight video games 3-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-9). Their opponents although, weren’t any pushovers. Harimoto was a part of Japan’s Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medal group and Kihara is a three-time World Championships medal winner. Ayhika-Sutirtha had been assured going into the match having crushed the pair of Harimoto and Kihara within the ultimate of WTT Tunis Contender final 12 months however the Japanese duo have simply upped their respective video games prior to now 12 months and seemed assured all through.
The dropping semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals at these Championships they usually grew to become the primary Indian girls’s doubles pair to win a medal right here.
Ayhika and Sutirtha have repeatedly raised the bar in terms of Indian girls’s doubles. They made historical past on the Asian Video games final 12 months by successful a bronze, India’s first medal. Then in Tunis final 12 months, they grew to become the primary Indians to win the WTT Contender girls’s doubles title.
Whereas their win in Astana solely reaffirms that they’ll compete with the perfect, questions will probably be requested about what they should do to succeed in finals of top-level tournaments. Their finest efficiency this 12 months is reaching the Rd of 16 at each the Singapore and the Saudi Smash, and of their quest for a big-tournament medal, their performances at high WTT tournaments have to enhance.
However first, one wants to grasp what works for them.
27-year-old Ayhika’s sturdy, defensive play slows the sport down, setting it up beautifully for Sutirtha’s thunderous smashes. Ayhika makes use of an anti-spin rubber on the backhand that reverses the spin. It’s a troublesome rubber to make use of as a result of it is advisable to have nice management over the ball. To reverse the spin, she has to first gauge the spin the opponent is placing on the ball.
What works in doubles is that she’s capable of play it nearer to the web and in addition takes the tempo off the shot. The spins she places on it may puzzle the opponent and in the event that they play a free return, Sutirtha can end the purpose together with her highly effective forehand.
That’s actually been their very profitable gameplan all through, considerably dependant on how Ayhika can boggle the opponent and decelerate the sport.
One of many causes for Ayhika’s success, in accordance with her coach Soumyadeep Roy is as a result of she will be able to differ her photographs through the use of the identical motion.
“She will be able to hit the ball with the identical motion, from the identical top, however the opponent gained’t know the way the ball will spin or whether or not it’s going to spin or not. It’s very troublesome for the opponent to grasp,” he stated.
The issue arises when a high participant — like World No. 7 Harimoto who they performed within the semis on Sunday — is ready to return Sutirtha’s smashes with ease.
What occurs then?
Sutirtha’s forehand assault is returned with much more energy, a lot in order that Ayhika isn’t all the time profitable in slowing it down, as soon as extra. Her return is then met with an excellent highly effective shot by the opponent, and Sutirtha, simply fails to succeed in it.
It’s how the Japanese pair gained a lot of the factors on Sunday and Ayhika-Sutirtha must discover a resolution.
Roy says the pair have been working tirelessly ever since their Asian Video games medal and are enhancing on daily basis.
“It’s all the time the query of what can Ayhika and Surtitha do to enhance. We have to take a look at how a lot they’ve improved over the previous 12 months. Ayhika has crushed the perfect gamers on the planet and that rubs off on Sutirtha too. Collectively they’re not afraid of taking up high pairs. Earlier than going for this match they had been assured of medalling in doubles and now are already considering of a World Championship medal,” he stated.
When requested what wants to vary for them to beat high gamers, Roy stated that enhancing bodily and technically is all the time wanted.
“Even the highest gamers need to enhance technically, so we’ll work on that. Sure, bodily they should enhance so their attain can get higher however general I believe they simply must hold enjoying collectively in an effort to get larger outcomes,” he stated.