Batra, Mukherjee earn shock wins to keep Indian interest alive

Athletes often talk of the Olympic hangover—the lull that follows the unmatched high of the Games. For Sutirtha Mukherjee, it was an extended period of hush.

One that also had her coach, Soumyadeep Roy, embroiled in a court case filed by Manika Batra that eventually led to the national federation being disbanded for a Committee of Administrators (CoA). Roy, who was also the Indian contingent’s national coach at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, was accused by Batra of allegedly asking her to throw away a match against Mukherjee in the Olympic qualifiers so that both the Indian women could get to Tokyo.

They did. Batra made it to the third round. Mukherjee to the second. Batra continued to make headlines—for the right or wrong reasons—and move ahead in the rankings. Mukherjee stagnated.

On Thursday, however, Mukherjee was not only one of the standout surprises of the WTT Star Contender Goa, but also gave Batra company as one of the two Indian faces remaining in the tournament.

Before India's top paddler doused the challenge from the world No. 14 Adriana Diaz, the 147th-ranked Mukherjee swept past the No. 18 Jia Nan Yuan of France 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-7) to cruise into the singles Round of 16 as a qualifier.

“To beat a player ranked as high as 18, I am just so happy,” she said.

It’s an unexpectedly welcome run in the international tournament at home for the Naihati-born paddler after a year of indifferent results plying largely on the domestic circuit.

“I struggled a lot last year," Mukherjee said. “My performances were very up and down. I'd play one good match and then a really bad one. My rankings also went too low. Now I feel like I'm starting to play well again.”

The pandemic-curtailed domestic calendar in 2022 restricted her competitive outings to few and far between, while Roy said she did not have enough funds to travel abroad for tournaments. She also did not make the Commonwealth Games squad. And therefore, tucked at their training base in Jadavpur, Mukherjee immersed herself in practice.

"After the Olympics, she went through a lean patch," Roy said. “But she is a fighter. We believed that if we kept working and kept the self-belief high, she would get back. We got a long period of training because she wasn't playing a lot of tournaments. It was actually a blessing in disguise.”

Mukherjee brought those truckloads of training hours and days into the National Games in September, where she beat Batra in the semi-finals and Sreeja Akula in the final for the singles title to go with the doubles and team gold. That was a critical starting point in her turnaround path.

“Earlier, I would often struggle against Sreeja, but at the National Games, I did not think too much about winning or losing. I just played freely," she said.

Playing freely is what Mukherjee felt also worked in her clinical win over the 37-year-old Frenchwoman, with whom she had lost a close encounter the last time they met. “I wanted to play my game and be aggressive. I changed things up a bit from the last time we played, and ensured that I was the one dictating rallies," she said.

Having lost her grandmother last week and not had a “good training session” over the course, Mukherjee came into this tournament with modest expectations. She will now play world No. 12 Portuguese Fu Yu on Friday to fight for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Batra will do that against China’s world No. 20 Qian Tianyi after a solid 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8) victory over the Puerto Rican Diaz. The 34th-ranked Indian overcame a mid-match wobble where she went a little defensive after clinching the first two games. A tweak in tactics had her stay away from Diaz’s backhand and attack a lot more to her forehand and that did the trick.

Batra and G Sathiyan, though, lost their mixed doubles quarter-final 3-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-6) to the Japanese combo of Miwa Harimoto and Shunaue Togami. Sathiyan also lost his singles Round of 32 to Japan's world No. 22 Yukiya Uda 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8).

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