India in Table Tennis, Paris 2024 Olympics Review: Women paddlers steal the show with pathbreaking performances

Gender-equal Olympics. That was the motto of Paris 2024.

For India’s table tennis contingent, that equality was merely quantitative. For when it came to performance, the three women paddlers outdid their male counterparts by a fair margin.

Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula started off the dream fortnight by making it to the singles pre-quarterfinal, a first for Indian table tennis. Later in the team championship – where India’s men and women featured for the very first time – Archana Kamath joined the party as the women went one step further.

A place in an Olympic quarterfinal for an Indian was something that even an ardent table tennis fan would have found hard to believe until recently. India’s female outfit took advantage of a favourable draw to stun fourth-seed Romania and then stretch Germany before exiting in the quarterfinals.

ALSO READ | India vs Romania Match Report

The men, on the other hand, had to be content with either faring below par or living up to their billing. Achanta Sharath Kamal – the old warhorse – was the talk of the town heading into the quadrennial extravaganza. Not only was he featuring in his fifth Olympics – another feather in his string of records – but he was also India’s flagbearer at the opening ceremony.

The 42-year-old couldn’t translate it into a memorable outing on the table, losing in the round of 64 in singles. More than the premature exit, the manner in which the 24th seed was found wanting against Slovenia’s Deni Kožul – placed 80 places below Sharath in the world rankings – was disappointing.

Harmeet Desai – the other male singles paddler – had a respectable outing on his Olympic debut. He asked a few questions of eventual bronze medallist Felix LeBrun of France before bowing out in the second round.

Contrary to women, who had a favourable draw, India’s men were pitted against mighty China first in the team championship. But Sharath left his mark on his last Olympic hurrah by snatching a game from singles gold medallist Fan Zhendong. Even Harmeet and Manav Thakkar in doubles and the latter in his singles outing displayed that Indian table tennis has indeed come a long way from merely taking pride in representing India at the Olympics.

But the fortnight belonged to India’s women – especially the duo of Manika and Sreeja. They may appear in stark contrast to each other. While Manika is among the tallest female paddlers on the world circuit, Sreeja is on the shorter side. But the Indian duo bears a resemblance in effectively using their long-pimpled rubber on the backhand. Moreover, both of them have mastered the trickery of flipping the rubber between the points to bamboozle a majority of their opponents.

No wonder then that Sreeja – having overtaken Manika in world rankings weeks before the Olympics – was handed the 16th seed with Manika not too far behind.

Naturally, Manika faced the first big test before Sreeja as she was up against local sensation Prithika Pavade. The southpaw not only enjoyed the French crowd support but also rode high on confidence of being the star of France’s bronze medal-winning run in the World Championship.

But Manika – who had controversially played without a coach behind her in Tokyo three years ago – along with national coach Massimo Costantini’s timely guidance ensured she didn’t let a boisterous crowd get to her by running away with a 4-0 win. The only time Manika stuttered was when Prithika saved three match points in the fourth game.

Up next was the eighth seed Miu Hirano but the Japanese edged past Manika to halt her run. Despite losing in the pre-quarterfinals, Manika’s third Olympic appearance – a first for an Indian female paddler – was her most successful outing.

Sreeja, on the other hand, not only soaked in the atmosphere on her Olympic debut but also justified her billing. After an easy opening round, Sreeja was hardly troubled by seasoned Christina Kallberg of Sweden in the round of 32. Up next was the top seed Sun Yingsha of China.

The scoreline may end up reading 4-0 in favour of the eventual silver medallist, but had Sreeja been able to convert at least one of the nine game points she enjoyed over the first two games combined, she may have scripted history by ousting a Chinese paddler, a rarity in Olympic table tennis.

But the duo delivered along with Archana as India overcame fancied Romania in the women’s team championship pre-quarterfinal 3-2. While Manika won both her singles, the other two paired to snatch the doubles.

ALSO READ | Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula bow out in women’s singles pre-quarterfinals

Annett Kaufmann, the teenage southpaw, then wielded her magic in the quarterfinal to end India’s hopes of getting close to featuring in a medal match for the first time in the Olympics.

Nevertheless, despite being far from the podium, it turned out to be India’s most successful Olympic table tennis outing, primarily thanks to its female paddlers.