In what is going to go down as a memorable day for Indian desk tennis, a complete of seven Indian gamers — one within the ladies’s singles last, each pairs within the ladies’s doubles finals, and one pair within the males’s doubles last — certified for the title clashes of the World Desk Tennis (WTT) Contender match in Lagos, Nigeria.
Whereas the gamers managed to win some intense matches, probably the most spectacular victory of the day was Sutirtha Mukherjee beating World No.8 and teenage South Korean sensation Shin Yubin 3-2 (11-9, 3-11, 0-11, 11-9, 11-6) within the quarterfinal of the ladies’s singles occasion.
She, nonetheless, later misplaced to compatriot Sreeja Akula within the semifinal.
Shocker in #WTTLagos ‼️
Sutirtha Mukherjee knocks out defending champ Shin Yubin 🫨#WTTContender Lagos is LIVE 👉 https://t.co/obRmtF5f8o pic.twitter.com/gXji2SIQ2W
— World Desk Tennis (@WTTGlobal) June 22, 2024
The Indian contingent is competing at a WTT match for the primary time underneath recently-appointed head coach Massimo Costantini, who’s in his third stint as India’s coach. The Italian advised The Indian Specific earlier this month that he goals to make India among the many top-3 in Asia and the match in Lagos has been a promising begin. A bit historic too, because it’s the primary time an Indian will play within the ladies’s singles last of a WTT Contender occasion, although one wouldn’t look a lot into it provided that the extent of taking part in subject wasn’t extraordinary.
India might’ve had two gamers in that last however Ayhika Mukherjee misplaced her semifinal tie in opposition to 16-year-old Chinese language Ding Yijie, who’s ranked exterior the highest 500 on this planet.
The one disappointment was within the males’s singles occasion the place not one of the gamers bought previous the quarterfinal stage.
That is how Sreeja Akula turned a #WTTLagos finalist after saving 3 match factors 🔥#WTTContender #TableTennis #PingPong pic.twitter.com/iNMkYFfKns
— World Desk Tennis (@WTTGlobal) June 22, 2024
This match in Lagos is a part of India’s preparation camp forward of the Olympics.
Whereas Sutirtha is just not a part of India’s Olympic squad — she misplaced out to Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, and Archana Kamath with Ayhika Mukherjee being the reserve participant – she confirmed that she too is able to beating a top-10 participant. And Yubin is a confirmed star.
Enjoying together with her quick pimpled rubber on the forehand, Sutirtha was in a position to take in the spin by Yubin and end off factors together with her ferocious forehand.
Coach Costantini is utilizing these WTT tournaments to check out completely different doubles combos forward of the Olympics. It’s the primary time that each the Indian males’s and ladies’s groups have certified for the crew occasion on the Olympics and the doubles rubber, being the primary match of the tie, might show important to the groups’ fortunes.
The ladies’s pair of Sreeja and Archana – who will almost definitely be the doubles pairing on the Olympics – are wanting in wonderful contact. After romping to a simple 3-0 win within the quarterfinal, all eyes have been on their semifinal conflict in opposition to Asian Video games medallists Ayhika and Sutirtha, particularly for the reason that latter duo had been missed for the Olympics. Sreeja and Archana although, confirmed their superiority by blanking the Mukherjees 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 12-10). Within the last, they may face a younger Indian pair of Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade.
The lads’s doubles pair of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar did nicely too, although they have been outplayed within the semifinal by the Chinese language pair of Kang Youde and Ning Xiankun.
Earlier than coming to Lagos, the Indian crew had an intense coaching camp in Bengaluru overseen by Costantini. The very first thing he did there was make the gamers bear a efficiency analytics check and whereas he wasn’t precisely pleased with the preliminary outcomes, gamers have revealed that he has given them an in depth plan in order that they attain their peak health earlier than the Olympics. And if Lagos is any indicator, they’re doing simply wonderful.