Table Tennis player Ayhika Mukherjee in action. (Instagram)
India’s Ayhika Mukherjee was back to her giant-slaying ways, beating World No. 8 Shin Yubin and World No. 16 Jeon Jihee to give India a phenomenal win over second seeds & World No. 3 Korea in the quarterfinal of the women’s team event at the Asian TT Championships at Astana Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
India’s Golden Girl Manika Batra too stunned Jihee to give the unheralded team a place in the semifinal where they take on World No. 2 Japan.
Getting a direct place in the quarterfinal courtesy of their Olympic quarterfinal finish and individual rankings, India were the underdogs against Olympic bronze medallists Korea but like national coach Massimo Costantini told The Indian Express: “This Indian team isn’t scared of playing against world’s best”.
It’s this belief that Ayhika portrayed when she played the opening match of the tie against Korea’s best player, 20-year-old Yubin, who not so long ago, reached the semifinal of the Paris Olympics.
In a stunning blitz, Ayhika twice parried off Shin’s comebacks, to win 11-9, 7-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-7.
Ayhika won the opening game, lost the second, and fought back from 2-8 down in the third to win it 12-10. Suddenly she looked like a more confident player and though she lost the next game, showed no nerves to take the final game and the match.
It was then time for Manika Batra to show her mettle and the 29-year-old took on the experienced left-handed Jihee, who won the WTT Doha Contender earlier this year. If the Ayhika-Yubin match was a battle of patience, the Manika-Jihee match was all about power and ferocious attack.
The World No. 29 Manika twiddled, attacking across the table but was most successful playing her forehand topspin attack down the line to Jihee’s backhand. The Korean too troubled Manika smashes to the center of the table and as the game reached 10-10 in the final fifth game, it was all about patience. It was Jihee who blinked first and Manika took the match to give India a 2-0 lead.
The lead soon vanished with Sreeja Akula, coming back from a 6-week injury layoff losing the next match to Lee Eunhye in straight games and Manika taking Yubin the distance but losing the fifth game.
It was then up to Ayhika to give India the win of a lifetime and the 27-year-old, who lost her place in the Indian team at the Olympics to Archana Kamath, showed why she can be counted on in big-match situations.
She fought back from a game down to beat Jihee 7-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-10 to give India the match and the tie.
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