Alone in her corner, a tearful Batra exits after 3rd round loss in 27 mins

Manika Batra’s voice choked as she finished her match at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Her Olympics run was over after losing to Austria’s world No. 17 Sofia Polcanova. But what made her journey odd was that she was playing without a coach in her corner. Her personal coach Sanmay Pranjape had no access to the field of play, and Batra had refused national coach Soumyadeep Roy’s presence by her side right on the first day. “I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about it,” Batra said.

As tears rolled down her cheeks, she added, “I think I was nervous today. I was thinking about winning. I gave my best. Can we talk later?”

The manner of third round defeat would have hurt her—in just 27 minutes, and in straight games (11-8, 11-2, 11-5, 11-7).

It was apparent on Monday that Batra was struggling for rhythm and composure, and that the issue of her coach not being by her side had occupied her mind. She did come up with two good wins in two days. On both occasions, she battled alone, even calling “time out” herself.

Her coach Paranjape is in Tokyo, but is accredited under the “P” (personal) category. He stays outside the Games Village. He can attend Batra’s training, and come to the venue, but is not allowed in the “field of play”.

That she badly missed a coach in her corner on an important day was clear. Batra was never in the match, and could not find her range. As frustration crept up, the unforced errors multiplied by the third game.

During one of the breaks, the Commonwealth Games champion buried her face in a towel for a long time, trying to dig deep. But it wasn’t to be.

On the other side, Polcanova’s coach would let out a roar for every winner.