How Sreeja Akula hopes to use UTT 2025 to regain lost form

“Sports is all about ups and downs. I just have to accept it, take the learnings and move on,” says Sreeja Akula.

A year ago, the 26-year-old paddler from Hyderabad was in the form of her life.

At the WTT Star Contender event in Goa, she was the only home player to reach the quarterfinals. She created history by becoming the first-ever Indian to clinch a singles title at the WTT Contender level in Lagos, Nigeria. At the same tournament, she also won the doubles event with Archana Kamath.

She entered the Paris Olympics as the 16th seed and took on World No. 1 Sun Yingsha of China for a place in the quarterfinals. The Indian may have lost 0-4 (10-12, 10-12, 8-11, 3-11) but her performance was beyond expectations as she was up 10-6 and 10-5 in the first two games. That run led her to No. 21 in the ITTF Rankings, the highest-ever for an Indian.

What should have acted as a springboard to further success proved to be the peak.

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A stress fracture forced Sreeja to be out for six weeks, leading to her missing Season 5 of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) league. Since then, she has played 10 international tournaments and lost the opening match eight times.

“After the Olympics, I had a major injury and it took some time for me to recover. I’m just trying to figure out what is going wrong. I’m confident that I will get back,” says Sreeja after the UTT Season 6 opener.

While not exactly one given the major difference in format, it was still a comeback of sorts for Sreeja on Saturday as she, playing for Jaipur Patriots, defeated Dabang Delhi T.T.C.‘s Spanish star Maria Xiao 2-1 (4-11, 11-9, 11-10).

The left-handed Xiao is ranked 19 places below World No. 35 Sreeja but has defeated the Indian in both of their international meetings.

Sreeja has faced trouble against players ranked even lower than Xiao recently. She went down 1-4 (11-9, 8-11, 6-11, 5-11, 2-11) to World No. 79 Suthasini Sawettabut of Thailand in the first round of World Championships in Doha while at the WTT Star Contender in Chennai, she lost 2-3 (6-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 7-11) to compatriot Krittwika Roy, who is well outside the Top 100.

Then, how does Sreeja find last year’s rhythm back?

“It is important for me to be patient, keep pushing myself, not get disappointed and feel demotivated. It is important to play more matches,” she says.

For someone struggling to find form in the knockout formats of international events, UTT Season 6 may have come at the right time for Sreeja. The league structure will give her match practice on a regular basis.

“I will be doing my fitness and continuing my routine every day. I also wanted to play more matches and this league is a very good stage where I can try out different things,” says the 26-year-old.

Specifically, when it comes to trying different things, Sreeja knows where the work is to be done.

“I’m trying to be more consistent on my backhand and do more variations because I play with the pimpled rubber on my backhand. On the international stage now, people are well prepared against players such as me, Manika (Batra) and Yashaswini (Ghorpade) who have similar style of play. So, I am just trying to figure out what new changes and variations I can do with my backhand,” she reveals.

The tournament is also an opportunity for the paddler to do problem-solving without her regular coach Somnath Ghosh, who is a part of Ahmedabad SG Pipers.

“I just have to think for myself. Coach cannot always be there. So, it is important for me to think and play my game. I can practice that over here,” says Sreeja.

The second half of the year is packed with 14 international tournaments, including three Grand Smashes and Asian Team Championships before the season-ending finals.

Improved fitness, more variations and problem-solving – Sreeja will need every bit of it to be somewhere close to where she was last year.