The emergence of G Sathiyan and Manika Batra as genuine medal contenders

Manika Batra and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan are two prolific players in the current Indian table tennis circuit. While both have had their share of struggles on their path to glory, they are still hungry for success and thrive under pressure.

Batra and Sathiyan recently participated in the 57th ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, South Africa. Batra’s run to the round of 32 was the best by any Indian player in both the men’s and women’s singles category.

World No. 34 Batra lost an intense contest 4-3 to World No. 14 Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico, the same opponent she defeated at WTT Star Contender Goa a couple of months ago.

Meanwhile, Sathiyan crashed out in the round of 64 when he fell 0-4 to Germany’s Qiu Dang.

Sathiyan and Manika, one of the two Indian pairs in the mixed doubles, fought hard till the round of 16 but failed to advance. The two teamed up only after the Tokyo Olympics with the intention of competing in next year’s Paris Olympics. Within a year of forming a pairing, they reached the top ten in the mixed doubles rankings of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

Sathiyan and Manika entered the mixed doubles world on March 7, 2022, a couple of months after winning the silver medal at the WTT Contender in Doha. Eight months after that, the pair scripted history by becoming the first Indian mixed doubles team to break into the top five of the world rankings.

(1/3) NEW CAREER HIGH WORLD RANK 5 in mixed doubles in one @manikabatra_TT In the latest ITTF world rankings, the highest ever world ranking achieved by an Indian pair in mixed doubles https://t.co/XviNQwjYo3

Manika Batra’s comeback from a rough spot

Earlier in January, Manika Batra achieved a career-best world ranking of 33rd in women’s singles after defeating then world No.7 Chen Xingtong and world No.6 Hina Hayat to clinch a historic bronze medal at the 2022 Asian Cup.

Batra became the first Indian table tennis player to win the elusive medal at the subcontinental event and only the second player from the country after Chetan Baboors who achieved double silver in 1997 and bronze in 2000.

However, things have looked bleak for the 27-year-old paddler over the past two years. He refused to take instructions from the then coach Soumyadeep Roy and got into a fight with the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI). The battle went on for nearly seven months until India’s legal structure intervened.

Although Batra won the battle on the field, he apparently lost his mojo in the game. He only appeared once in the semifinals and twice in the quarterfinals in 2022.

Batra, who won four medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG), including a gold in women’s singles, endured a medalless tournament at the 2022 event.

To end his barren run, Batra contacted his friend and former national team player Aman Balgu, who became the star paddler’s third personal coach in the last three years. He hoped to change his game under Balgu as working with German coach Chris Pfeiffer did not yield results, Batra said. Sports star in March.

Balgu told Sportskeeda that they are not far away from him winning a medal at a major event and noted that he helped him get back into his career by first making sure he had a positive environment around him.

After the World Cup, we know one thing that we are not far away. We are just one step away from medals in other major events. It was a good experience and good confidence for him. Manika was always a master player so it’s nothing that I have done something. Of course, when he came to me, he went through a difficult phase that every athlete goes through, Balgu said.

When I started training him, one thing I knew was that he needed an atmosphere that was all about positivity and things that really mattered. The first thing I did was to provide him with a happy environment. We did different things that are not technical or anything, but also very important to him. At his level, it’s not always about technology, but also about the mind, he added.

Batra had adapted his backhand game with a long nub of rubber that helps paddlers absorb momentum and spin to slow down the game.

Balgu ensured that Batra could combine his aggressive style of play with a long puck to stay ahead of the attacking rally with his international counterparts.

Balgu doesn’t pay any attention to rankings and stated that he is focused on improving with every game right now.

Ranking is just a number. Its by-product is something that cannot be seen. It is a good hope that it will be top 20 or top 10 or maybe also no.1. After all, it’s just a number. We can only focus on developing the game. Of course, we develop every month and every game we move forward, Balgu estimates.

Sathiya bank is calm to fulfill the expectations

Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, who won the bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games after beating England’s Paul Drinkhall, has learned how to handle the pressure since the Tokyo Olympics.

Sathiyan won the men’s title at the 84th Senior National Table Tennis Championships in March after 10-time winner Achanta Sharath Kamal withdrew from the event to attend to his workload. The 30-year-old defeated the likes of Fidel R. Snehit, Sudhanshu Grover, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai on his way to his second national title in his sixth appearance in the final.

In 2019, the Chennai paddler became the first Indian to break into the ITTF men’s singles top 25 when he became world No. 24. He is currently ranked 56, five places behind India’s highest-ranked player Sharath. Terrible.

Sathiyan relies on his experience with a calm frame of mind as he prepares for major tournaments like the Asian Games later this year and the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Sathiyan and Batra often shuffle between Chennai and Hyderabad to practice mixed doubles. Ever since the latter started training with Balgu, he has been spending more time in Hyderabad after previously training mainly in Mumbai. Balgu and Sathiyan’s coach Raman Subramanian have done their best to complete as many training sessions as possible either in Chennai or Hyderabad.

Sathiyan and Batra are sure to be contenders to help India finish on the podium in multiple events at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Despite playing away from home at the World Table Tennis Championships, they received a lot of support from home Cadbury Dairy Milks #CheerForAllSports an initiative where fans could cheer on their favorite paddlers through fan walls installed in the stadium. If you want to be part of this initiative, please register here.