India’s Sreeja Akula created history in Indian table tennis when she won the women’s singles as well as doubles at the WTT Contender Lagos 2024 at the Sir Molade Okoya Thomas Indoor Sports Hall in Nigeria on Sunday. With this, she became the first Indian to land a WTT Contender singles title—a high point in a career that augurs well for the future of Indian table tennis.
Against the extremely promising 16-year-old Yijie Ding of the People’s Republic of China, the win in the singles final was not an easy one as far as Akula was concerned. She recovered well after an opening game loss to win 4-1 (10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6). This victory adequately demonstrated not only the skill and determination of Akula, but also her somewhat progressively improved status within the international table tennis arena.
Her path to the final saw her defeat Tokyo Olympian Sutirtha Mukherjee in a tense semi-final. The world No. 43 Akula edged out Mukherjee, ranked 125th, in a gripping 3-2 (11-8, 13-15, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10) match. Mukherjee herself had an impressive run, notably ousting defending champion and world No. 8 Shin Yubin of the Republic of Korea in the quarter-finals with a 3-2 (11-9, 3-11, 0-11, 11-9, 11-6) victory.
Playing very aggressively, Yijie Ding came over Ayhika Mukherjee in five-game entertaining encounter: 3-2 (11-7, 7-11, 11-2, 11-13, and 11-4) in another semi-final, event, to set up a summit clash with Akula.
Playing the doubles, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath had to come behind to beat the Yashaswini Ghorpade and Diya Chitale combine 3-2 (11-9, 11-6, 12-10).
The Indian pair of national champion Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar lived up to their top billing in the men’s doubles final to convincingly tame the Nigerian duo of Olajide Omotayo and Azeez Solanke 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-8). The victory for Desai and Thakkar at the meet was the first-ever title win by an Indian men’s pairing at a Contender meet and only further underlined the growing prowess of India in the sport.
Indeed, that, however, wasn’t the march this Indian caravan was waiting for. Manika Batra, the top-seed in the women’s section whom the world currently ranks 28th across the globe, took to the court in the last-16 game against Egypt’s 331st ranked Farida Badawy. In a cliffhanger of an encounter, she fell 3-2 (11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 11-8).
It was in another sensational display, avenging an earlier defeat by the same margin (3-2, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6) that 19-year-old French paddler Thibault Poret turned the tables and eliminated the five-time Commonwealth Games champion, Sharath Kamal, just about to enter his fifth Olympics.
Sreeja Akula, Archana Kamath, Harmeet Desai, and Manav Thakkar have secured a place in the Indian team for the just-concluded title-winning campaign, hence assuring a strong performance by the country on the global platform.
The historic wins by Akula at WTT Contender Lagos 2024 are a strong boost to self-confidence while at the same time unendingly inspiring her teammates and fans as preparations continue for Paris. Her feat underlined the potential and rising standards of Indian table tennis on the world stage.
