NEW DELHI: It was a day of contrasting emotions for the Indian contingent present in Gondomar, Portugal for the World Team Qualification Tournament. While the men’s team has a great shot at creating history, the women’s squad has it tough.
The men’s team, seeded fifth, got a first-round bye and will take on Luxembourg (seeded 32) in the Round of 32. Their next opponent will be either Iran (20) or Slovenia (11). Win both and they qualify for Tokyo as a team — a feat never been achieved before. Apart from qualifying as a trio, the team can then also nominate two to play singles.
The top eight automatically qualify for the Games, while the last available spot will be fought among the runners-up in the Round of 16. The men’s team is comprised of G Sathiyan, A Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, A Amalraj and Manav Thakkar.
The first three are expected to shoulder most of the burden. “It is a good draw and we could not have asked for more. We have been targeting this competition for a long time and it is now time for us to go out and make the country proud,” World No 33 A Sharath Kamal told this daily from Portugal.
While the first match should be relatively easy, the encounter against Slovenia or Iran will be challenging, especially the former. Indian paddlers have never faced Luxembourg before while only the likes of Sharath and Sathiyan have faced Slovenian players.
“Only me and Sathiyan have played them once before. It will be a different test for us for sure but our camp in Germany should hold us in good stead. We had prepared for any eventuality and had worked on different strategies for various teams,” Sharath added.
Even the format is something that India is not accustomed to. Each tie begins with a doubles encounter, which is then followed by four singles clashes. The No 1 and No 2 player cannot feature in the doubles team together. A maximum of three players will play each encounter with each playing twice.“It will be a different test for sure. The faster we adjust to the format, the better it will be. We will have a team meeting and decide our strategy. There will not be an iota of complacency,” Sathiyan added.
The women’s squad (seeded 17) will come face-to-face against their World Championship vanquishers Sweden in the Round of 32. If they manage to overcome the Swedes, either of Romania or Italy await them. Romania (fifth seeds) are expected to ease past the Italians. They have two players in the Top 35.
“There is no point in thinking about Romania now. Sweden have experienced players like Matilda (Ekholm). But if we can play our best and execute plans, we stand a chance. Our aim is to fight till the end,” coach Soumyadeep Roy added.
The women’s contingent only has one player in the top 100 in Manika Batra. Madhurika Patkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, and Archana Kamath form the rest of the squad.