NEW DELHI: It was a good day in the office for India’s paddlers at the World Team Qualification Tournament in Gondomar, Portugal. The men’s team beat lowly Luxembourg, while the women edged past fancied Sweden. Both teams are now one step away from qualifying for Tokyo Olympics.
Many expected the women to succumb tamely to their World Championship vanquishers, but the heroics of Manika Batra and Archana Kamath ensured otherwise. They got off to a bad start. Archana and Ayhika Mukherjee lost their opening doubles rubber to Christina Kallberg and Matilda Ekholm 7-11, 10-12, 15-17.
But Manika won the first singles rubber against defensive Linda Bwergstrom — World No 75 — 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7. Ayhika put up a fight but ended up losing to Ekholm 11-5, 11-13, 11-6, 11-7. Manika again came back to make it 2-2, overcoming Christina 10-12, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7.
Young Archana was put under a lot of pressure and had to dig deep to take the tie to the decider. She was down a match point. But she kept calm and managed to pull off a stunning 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11 victory.
"My coaches and teammates tried to take the pressure off me and asked me to enjoy myself. They constantly cheered me on from the sidelines and kept telling me to believe in myself. That really helped a lot," a jubilant Archana told this daily from Portugal.
Coach Soumyadeep Roy was all praise for both Manika and Archana. "We all know of Manika’s talents and she showed it today with two good wins. But hats off to Archana. She beat a chopper under immense pressure and we are all proud of her," he said.
But things will get tougher. They now face fifth seeds Romania on Friday. But the win over Sweden has galvanised the unit, according to Archana. "We showed our fighting spirit and we firmly believe anything is possible. We definitely have a chance if we play to our potential," she says.
The fifth seeded men’s team scored a 3-0 triumph over 50th-ranked Luxembourg. But things were not as smooth as the scoreline suggests. A Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai were made to work for their 11-9, 16-14, 11-6 win over Gilles Michely and Eric Glod.
G Sathiyan, India’s top ranked paddler, was troubled by Luca Mladenovic, who won the first two games. His use of long pimpled rubber on one side made Sathiyan struggle. The World No 30 fought back from 2 games down and a match point down to finally seal the deal 8-11, 9-11, 11-3. 13-11, 11-6.
Thereafter, it was left to Sharath, ranked 33rd, to finish the job. He took the first two sets rather easily before dropping the next. But he eventually coasted home in the fourth."Such rubbers are not in vogue nowadays. I had almost forgotten how to face such players. He used it to good effect. But by the third game, I had figured him out," Sathiyan revealed.
The men will face Slovenia on Friday. It will be a tough fight, but Sharath is confident. "We know what’s at stake. We are focused on the job at hand," she says.