Sreeja Akula created historical past on the WTT Contender in Lagos on Sunday by changing into the primary Indian to clinch a singles title at a Contender degree. Impressively, she additionally received the ladies’s doubles title, changing into the primary Indian to win two titles on the identical occasion at this degree of World Desk Tennis occasions.
Together with her singles triumph, Sreeja is ready to succeed in a career-high rating of World No. 25, changing into the highest-ranked Indian, leapfrogging Manika Batra, who has been India’s high feminine paddler for almost all of the previous couple of years. Sreeja had already as soon as gone previous Batra earlier this 12 months.
It was additionally the primary time that India received a males’s doubles title after the Surat duo of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar beat native favourites Azeez Solanke and Olajide Omotayo 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-8).
Replace: WTT Contender Lagos☑️#TableTennis🏓
Our gifted paddlers clinched a complete of 9⃣medals together with 3 🥇 1 🥈 5 🥉
Check out the medallists and their respective classes:
Ladies’s Singles:-
1) Sreeja Akula:- 🥇
2) Sutirtha Mukherjee:- 🥉
3) Ayhika Mukherjee:-… pic.twitter.com/eQSyHiUqwk— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) June 23, 2024
Within the first ultimate of the day, Sreeja mixed together with her Paris Olympics teammate Archana Kamath to thrash compatriots Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 12-10) within the ladies’s doubles ultimate.
You may sense that Sreeja was in a rush to complete off the doubles ultimate realizing that she needed to a difficult ladies’s singles ultimate to play subsequent. However in opposition to Ding Yijie, her 16-year-old Chinese language opponent who’s ranked outdoors the highest 500, Sreeja fought again from a sport down to utterly dominate the match and clinch the title with a 4-1 win (10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6).
Paris-bound Sreeja has been in phenomenal type in each singles and doubles. In singles, her 5-game win over Sutirtha Mukherjee through which she calmly saved three match factors within the deciding sport was mighty spectacular. Her doubles partnership with Archana is essential since they may most definitely be the doubles pairing on the Paris Olympics within the ladies’s workforce occasion. It’s the primary time India have certified for the women and men’s workforce occasions on the Olympics and this WTT event was a part of their preparation camp below recently-appointed head coach Massimo Costantini.