#worldtabletennis

Sutirtha Mukherjee, ranked 147 in WTT currently, has made the impossible come true by defeating Jia Nan Yuan of France (world no. 18) in Panaji’s Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in the round of 32 with a 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-7). This is her biggest win ever in her career and is the only Indian to stay in the tournament apart from Manika Batra, who is top-ranked in WTT, who also had a win over Adriana Diaz (world no. 14) of Puerto Rico with a win of 3-1 (11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8).

What makes her journey inspiring is that Sutirtha was emotionally going through a difficult phase as before arriving for the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender in Panaji, Goa, she had lost her grandmother 10 days before the games. She was quite close to her grandmother but followed her iron will to compete at the tournament and prove her mettle through brilliant performances. Her hard work at practices made her physically fit and mentally prepared for the competition, while she was internally hurting over her grandmother passing away.

Sutirtha had to give more than a maximum effort to see success today. She was first denied a wildcard direct entry in the first WTT event by the main draw. After which, she had a swift win against Prapti Sen with a 3-0 (11-3 11-6, 11-7) win in the first round, and then went on to defeat Li Yu-Jhun (world no. 92) with a win 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-6). In the final qualifier round, she then took out Lee Eunhye of Korea (world no. 110) with a 3-1 win. In the Rd of 64, where she won 3-1 against Suhana Saini, she was up for Yuan, a 37-year-old Frenchwoman.

Sutirtha is known to suffer as who can forget the issue before the Tokyo Olympics 2021 where Soumyadeep Roy, the then coach of India was accused by Manika of being asked to lose a match to Sutirtha. Roy has consistently coached Sutirtha and continues to do so despite the fallout. However, it did not stop her from losing the ranking and a steep drop in it during the pandemic. This led to her not making it to the Commonwealth games, which were held last year in Birmingham.

Due to a lack of funds, she was unable to compete in the WTT circuit for International Tournaments. But she played for zonal and other competitions. Roy also said she did not lose hope but kept practicing. The continued training brought the fighter in her to every game she played thereafter. And we can see the results of it in National Games the previous year, where she won in the semi-final against Batra and was victorious against Sreeja Akula, a national champion in the final.

In a shocking event, World no. 1 Fen Zhendong, who is also an Olympic silver medalist lost against Cho Daeseong of Korea (world no. 193) 3-2 ((7-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8). Cho made a thrilling comeback after losing the first two games and then finishing it with a tie-breaker and two consecutive wins. In the tournament, India had placed their hope on G Sathiyan and Manika in mixed doubles and G Sathiyan in men’s singles.

In mixed doubles, Sathiyan-Manika could not resist much against Harimoto Miwa and Togami Shunsuke from Japan with scores 10-12, 6-11, and 6-11. In men’s singles, Yukiya Uda of Japan (world no. 22) stole the show, and Sathiyan had a hard fall with 0-3 in the tournament with a 9-11, 5-11, and 8-11 loss.

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