Athletes usually discuss of the Olympic hangover—the lull that follows the unrivaled excessive of the Video games. For Sutirtha Mukherjee, it was an prolonged interval of hush.
One which additionally had her coach, Soumyadeep Roy, embroiled in a courtroom case filed by Manika Batra that finally led to the nationwide federation being disbanded for a Committee of Directors (CoA). Roy, who was additionally the Indian contingent’s nationwide coach on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, was accused by Batra of allegedly asking her to throw away a match in opposition to Mukherjee within the Olympic qualifiers in order that each the Indian ladies might get to Tokyo.
They did. Batra made it to the third spherical. Mukherjee to the second. Batra continued to make headlines—for the precise or incorrect causes—and transfer forward within the rankings. Mukherjee stagnated.
On Thursday, nevertheless, Mukherjee was not solely one of many standout surprises of the WTT Star Contender Goa, but additionally gave Batra firm as one of many two Indian faces remaining within the event.
Earlier than India’s high paddler doused the problem from the world No. 14 Adriana Diaz, the 147th-ranked Mukherjee swept previous the No. 18 Jia Nan Yuan of France 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-7) to cruise into the singles Spherical of 16 as a qualifier.
“To beat a participant ranked as excessive as 18, I’m simply so joyful,” she mentioned.
It’s an unexpectedly welcome run within the worldwide event at residence for the Naihati-born paddler after a 12 months of detached outcomes plying largely on the home circuit.
“I struggled so much final 12 months,” Mukherjee mentioned. “My performances had been very up and down. I would play one good match after which a very unhealthy one. My rankings additionally went too low. Now I really feel like I am beginning to play properly once more.”
The pandemic-curtailed home calendar in 2022 restricted her aggressive outings to few and much between, whereas Roy mentioned she didn’t have sufficient funds to journey overseas for tournaments. She additionally didn’t make the Commonwealth Video games squad. And subsequently, tucked at their coaching base in Jadavpur, Mukherjee immersed herself in follow.
“After the Olympics, she went by means of a lean patch,” Roy mentioned. “However she is a fighter. We believed that if we saved working and saved the self-belief excessive, she would get again. We bought a protracted interval of coaching as a result of she wasn’t taking part in plenty of tournaments. It was truly a blessing in disguise.”
Mukherjee introduced these truckloads of coaching hours and days into the Nationwide Video games in September, the place she beat Batra within the semi-finals and Sreeja Akula within the last for the singles title to go together with the doubles and staff gold. That was a essential start line in her turnaround path.
“Earlier, I’d usually wrestle in opposition to Sreeja, however on the Nationwide Video games, I didn’t assume an excessive amount of about successful or shedding. I simply performed freely,” she mentioned.
Taking part in freely is what Mukherjee felt additionally labored in her scientific win over the 37-year-old Frenchwoman, with whom she had misplaced a detailed encounter the final time they met. “I wished to play my sport and be aggressive. I modified issues up a bit from the final time we performed, and ensured that I used to be the one dictating rallies,” she mentioned.
Having misplaced her grandmother final week and never had a “good coaching session” over the course, Mukherjee got here into this event with modest expectations. She is going to now play world No. 12 Portuguese Fu Yu on Friday to struggle for a spot within the quarter-finals.
Batra will try this in opposition to China’s world No. 20 Qian Tianyi after a stable 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8) victory over the Puerto Rican Diaz. The Thirty fourth-ranked Indian overcame a mid-match wobble the place she went a bit of defensive after clinching the primary two video games. A tweak in techniques had her steer clear of Diaz’s backhand and assault much more to her forehand and that did the trick.
Batra and G Sathiyan, although, misplaced their blended doubles quarter-final 3-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-6) to the Japanese combo of Miwa Harimoto and Shunaue Togami. Sathiyan additionally misplaced his singles Spherical of 32 to Japan’s world No. 22 Yukiya Uda 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8).