The first China Smash was looked upon with great enthusiasm by Indian table tennis fraternity, especially after the largely positive performance of the Indian paddlers in the recently concluded Paris Olympics.
A deep run was expected, especially from the Indian women. After all, they were the ones that raised the bar at the recent Olympics.
When the Indian men disappointed at Paris, Sreeja Akula, and Manika Batra took matters upon themselves and delivered a stellar show, becoming the first Indians to advance to the round of 16 of the Olympics in singles.
The team event saw India make its way into the quarter-finals for the first time after defeating Romania, and they could have gone to the semi-finals had it not been for the brilliance of one teenage German paddler, Annet Kauffman.
Just ahead of the China Smash, former head coach of team India S.Raman had shown optimism in an interaction with The Bridge.
“I would say we have good chances of doing well, especially the women’s team,” he had said.
He was more wary of the men, given their lack of form at the moment.
But what transpired in the week and a half was nothing short of a disappointing.
A barrage of exits
As many as 13 Indians were set to take part in the China Smash, and by the time the qualifying rounds closed, eight were already eliminated.
Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan G, Snehit Suravajulla, Manush Shah, Diya Chitale, Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Ayhika Mukherjee all fell by the wayside in the qualifying rounds.
And if that wasn’t disappointing enough, the main draw matches heaped further sorrow as Manav Thakkar and Sharath Kamal succumbed in their respective opening matches as well.
Manav Thakkar lost his opening match to Zeng Beixun and Sharath Kamal fell to Aditya Sareen, an Australian of Indian origin.
Meanwhile, India’s biggest hopefuls in the singles category, Sreeja Akula and Manika Batra also faced first-round exits in the China Smash.
While Manika Batra lost to Mima Ito of Japan, Sreeja Akula lost to another Japanese paddler, Miu Hirano.
To add insult to injury, both Indian women failed to win a game.
The Indian doubles teams, however, proved to be the saving grace.
Amid multiple disappointing singles exits, the doubles teams fared comparatively well, with Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee reaching the round of 16.
However, the mixed doubles team of Diya Chitale and Manush Shah were eliminated in the round of 16 by Chinese pair Xue Fei and Qian Tianyi.
Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar, India’s standout performers
The star performers of the China Smash for India were the men’s doubles pair of Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar.
In reaching the quarter-finals, the duo displayed resilience.
Even in their defeat to the Chinese pairing of Liang Jingkun and Wang Chuqin, the duo didn’t give in without a fight.
Despite going 0-2 down, they fought back in the third game, winning it, and were in a strong position to win the fourth game as well, leading 7-5 at one point.
But the resolute Chinese held their composure to win the game and the match itself.
What went wrong?
While the temptation would be to lay the blame on misfortune with the Indians supposedly having received tougher draws, the reality is that the Indian paddlers have found it difficult to remain consistent at the highest level.
Sreeja was just returning from a long injury layoff that kept her off the table since the Olympics and the lack of competitive table tennis was evident.
Manika, on the contrary, has been on tour.
Despite that, she has posted a couple of disappointing results prior to the China Smash with one of those coming in her opening match in the WTT Macau Champions – a loss to Miyuu Kihara.
As for the men, close on the heels of their debacle at the Olympics, their disappointing performances continued.
What next for the table tennis contingent?
The next assignment for the Indian paddlers will be the ITTF Asian Table Tennis Championships, set to begin in Kazhakastan on 6th October, 2024.
It presents Indians with another opportunity to redeem themselves from the disappointment of the China Smash.
Time, however, will tell if they can turn the tide.