TOKYO: It was another mixed day in terms of results in the table tennis section with both female paddlers Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee bowing out while the lone male player A Sharath Kamal made it through. But once again, a coach in Manika’s corner was conspicuous by his absence.
Commonwealth Games and Asian Games medallist Manika got thrashed 0-4 by 10th seed Sofia Polcanova in the third round while India’s No 1 men’s paddler Sharath, after a poor start, came back strongly to get the better of Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia.
In both the matches, the Indian athletes were struggling at one point and while Sharath dug deep with the help of national coach Soumyadeep Roy, Manika could not because she didn’t have a coach behind her.
Having someone sit in your corner, just egging you on or suggesting a tactical tweak can work wonders as they sit behind the play and can observe things better.
Sharath was visibly upset after capitulating in the first game. After the Portuguese once again levelled proceedings in the fourth, things seemed to be right on edge.
The 39-year-old and Apolonia were tied 4-4 in the fifth set before Soumyadeep called for a timeout. And that ploy worked wonders and the Indian did not look back after that.
“That was a brilliant call and he motivated me and made sure I return back to the court in the right frame of mind. And I just flicked on the switch and I was back with clarity and made things work after that,” Sharath told this daily after the match.
Incidentally, Sharath has traditionally struggled against his opponent, having lost to him in the last seven occasions including in the Bundesliga as well as UTT.
Up next for Sharath is the defending champion and second-seed Chinese Ma Long. The Indian veteran has played Ma four times - twice in men’s singles and twice in team events - between 2007 and 2019. But it is the Chinese paddler who holds a 4-0 record against the Indian.
Soumyadeep is Sutirtha’s personal coach and that definitely helped the debutant in her opener but things did not work out in the same manner on Monday.
Sutirtha lost her second round match to Portugal’s Yu Fu in straight games. Even G Sathiyan, whose personal coach S Raman was not given a chance to travel to Tokyo, also had worlds of praise for Soumyadeep.
“He kept motivating me and pumped me up and kept asking be to be more aggressive,” the World No 37 said.
Of course, Raman’s presence would have been of great help especially when Sathiyan turned passive but that’s just the way the COVID-induced restrictions have worked.
Manika has impressed one and all with her gutsy performance but not allowing the national coach to sit in her corner might not have been the best look for her.
The federation is not too happy and it remains to be seen what happens in the days to come.
TTFI is not fault-free either as they failed to find an adequate replacement despite the last coach leaving the job post the completion of the Asian Games.