Manika’s victory could prove vital for Indian TT
There are 57 women ranked above her in the world. But for now, India’s Manika Batra is on top of the world. On Monday, the table tennis fraternity was awestruck as the 1.8m tall Manika defeated world No 4 from Singapore Feng Tianwei in the women’s team event at the Commonwealth Games. Manika also got the better of Zhou Yihan as India won the title.
The Singapore team was shellshocked. For the first time since 2002, they were not going back with gold. The best Asian team in the CWG had lost to a side ranked six places below them.
All those who have seen her progress know that Manika had been steadily moving up the ranks in the last five years, beating some of the top players in the world on way to gold in the second division of the World TT Championship in 2016.
Soon after qualifying for the 2016 Rio Games, Manika had said that she had made winning a habit when she was only nine years old, and moving to the next level was a part of the process. She trains for six hours and dreams of breaking into the top 10, something that most predecessors wouldn’t have dreamed about. But Manika is different.
Singapore is a powerhouse in women’s TT and Feng Tianwei is a triple Olympic medallist, a World Team Championship winner and 2015 Asian Cup winner.
In beating Feng, Manika impressed one and all with her mental strength. She used a clever strategy, confusing the Singaporeans by keeping her bat close to the table and at an angle for spin, with many of her returns also flat and fast. Also, she flipped her bat mid-play to confuse her opponents.
Manika’s win is turning point in Indian TT. Two years back she was ranked outside the top 200 and soon she could break into the top 50 in the world.
In a few weeks, the World Team Championship kicks off in Sweden. India are in the same pool as China, Singapore and Russia and a medal is unlikely. The 2019 edition in Hungary, though, could be different, and a medal is a possibility.
And, by the time the Tokyo Olympics are around the corner, Manika will be 24 and hopefully close to her stated target of Top 10. At that level, a medal is a distinct possibility.
If she does bring home a medal from the Olympics, the future of Indian TT would have changed forever, quite like Indian cricket’s 1983 moment. Gold Coast 2018 could then turn out to be where the dream started for Manika and Indian table tennis.
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MANIKA’S WIN IS TURNING POINT IN INDIAN TT. TWO YEARS BACK SHE WAS RANKED OUTSIDE THE TOP 200 AND SOON SHE COULD BREAK INTO THE TOP 50