UTT 2024: Troublemaker Ayhika loves to be a nuisance to her opponents

“I don’t think about winning or losing, I try to have a lot of fun and trouble the player,” Ayhika Mukherjee told  Sportstar on the sidelines of the ongoing season of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT).

Trouble is what Hong Kong’s Lee Ho Ching must have sensed in 2018 — the second season of the UTT; Ayhika’s debut. “I was really scared to play in UTT for the first time, I was shaking,” she remembers. “But that was only for the first game. I came back with my tricky game and beat her.”

The Indian, after losing the first game, came back to win the match 2-1 against the then-world number 20. Since then, the paddler from Bengal has been known to down players placed higher in the pecking order.

The player she troubled most recently was Bernadette Szocs.

“Whenever I watch a match, I try to make some notes,” Ayhika recalled watching Szocs playing against her compatriots during the Paris Olympics. While Ayhika was a reserve player, watching the Romanian from the sidelines helped her beat Szocs in the UTT.

“It’s not like I’m watching them because they are a big player, I always think that if I ever get to play her then I should be ready. I should be able to fight,” she said. In Puneri Paltan’s first match of the season, Ayhika (WR91) handed a 3-0 loss to Szocs (WR13), who was donning the threads of debutant Ahmedabad SG Pipers.

Earlier this year in the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships, Ayhika stunned WR1 Sun Yinghsa of China. Indian fans were witness to the historic duo of Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee, childhood friends from West Bengal’s Naihati, clinching bronze in women’s doubles at last year’s Asian Games. On their way to the podium, the Indians had beaten Chinese duo Chen Mang and Wang Yidi, the reigning world champion in the event.

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“When I won the bronze medal in the Asian Games with Sutirtha, people were telling me how good a doubles player I was. They wanted to know whether I’m good at singles, but I think I proved it to them, and myself, when I beat Sun Yingsha,” she said.

More than just the rubber

“I play quite well in doubles, but that doesn’t mean that I am any less in singles. I feel I’m a different player in singles, a troublemaker. This is because of my rubbers and my playing style. People don’t like me at the table, that I know for sure,” she said.

Ayhika says how, for the longest time, people would cast aspersions on her, behind her back. They alleged that she would win because of her racquet. “I want to say that I am doing it, not the rubber,” she said with a smile, one that is almost perennial with the paddler.

The Asiad bronze medallist yields a blade that is sponsored by Dr. Neubauer. At a cursory glance, the backhand side would look plain. Ayhika’s opponents are faced with the reality when she chop blocks spinning attacks with the anti-type rubber. Anti-type rubber that adorns her paddle’s backhand is key to neutralising spin. “Once in a while, yes, I need to change my gameplay depending on the opponent. This rubber (anti-type) is really limited. It’s not like plain rubber. We don’t have a lot of strokes, we create them. I won’t say it is a disadvantage,” she explained.

On the forehand side, Ayhika’s racquet has half-long pimples which aid her in having faster attacks. This is seen whenever she plays a ripping forehand to kill a point in any given match, as often done in the UTT.

“The player uses the rubber, the rubber doesn’t use the player,” the 27-year-old said.

The player is a huge proponent of the different rubbers and plywood, so much so that she uses this as a reason to encourage younger children to take up the sport. More importantly, she reiterates table tennis being a ‘fun’ game.

A calm and confident customer

For the UTT, Ayhika had nothing but praise.

In her debut season, she underwent a nervy, yet successful campaign back in 2018 with the now-defunct RPSG Mavericks. After finishing last with Puneri Paltan in the third edition (2019), she was picked by Dabang Delhi last season.

The format of this competition is unlike the one usually followed in national and international tournaments. While the initial introduction to it was a bit harrowing for Ayhika, the format and the event as a whole grew on her. “Not only after two games, the pressure is created from the start. Every match counts. I’m getting used to the pressure which helps me in international tournaments. UTT, since 2018, has helped me stay calm and up my game.”

After Delhi bowed out of last year’s semifinals at the hands of eventual champion Goa Challengers, Ayhika was picked by Puneri for the second time ahead of the fifth edition.

“It’s a big stage for me because UTT has helped me boost my confidence. I take it very seriously. I want to give my hundred per cent, and when I don’t give that, I get disheartened,” she said.

Disheartened is what Ayhika must be feeling after having an underwhelming season this year. While beating Szocs was a bright spot in her dull campaign, she went on to lose against Manika Batra (1-2), Diya Chitale (0-3), Suthasini Sawettabut (1-2), and state-mate Poymantee Baisya (0-3). Puneri finished second to last in the league table.

But with an idiosyncratic sense of optimism and tricks up her sleeves, Ayhika will be hoping to find her form when she goes back to the WTT circuit and the Indian camp.

Next up for her, this month is the China Smash where she partners up with Sutirtha in the women’s doubles. In India colours, Ayhika is set to participate in singles and doubles at the upcoming Asian Championships scheduled to be held in Kazakhstan next month.