On February 16, in the first round of the women's team A round-robin of the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan, the Chinese women's team defeated the Indian women's team 3-2 in a reversal situation.
Wang Manyu secured the victory with a 3-0 victory over Aishka Mukherjee.
The Indian women's table tennis team has grown rapidly in recent years, with a strong focus on developing special players in order to achieve victory through surprise tactics. As early as the 2022 Asian Cup, long rubber player Batra defeated Chen Xingtong. At last year's Asian Games, the Mukherjee sisters defeated Chen Meng and Wang Yidi by an upset.
The Indian players also created huge problems for the Chinese women's table tennis team in this match.
The debut of the Chinese table tennis team.
Scared sweat like rain.
The Chinese women's table tennis team is the top seed in Group A, alongside Hungary, India, Spain and Uzbekistan. The head coach of the national table tennis team, Li Falcon, emphasized the importance of not being underestimated when looking forward to the competition the day before.
The national table tennis team faced India on the morning of February 16, which was their first opponent in the group stage. The strength of the Indian team has improved rapidly in the past two years. In this game, the national table tennis sent a lineup composed of Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu and Wang Yidi.
World No. 1 Yingsha Sun caused a big upset when she unexpectedly lost to Ashika Mukherjee in her opening match. Immediately afterwards, Wang Manyu defeated Manica Batra 3-1 in the second game to equalize the score for the national table tennis team.
In the next third singles match, Wang Yidi lost to Sliga Akula with a score of 0-3, and the national table tennis team fell behind again, which was not common in the group stage of the World Table Tennis Championships in the past.
Sun Yingsha managed to withstand the pressure in the fourth match, defeating Manica Batra 3-1. Immediately afterwards, Wang Manyu easily defeated Aishka Mukherjee with a score of 3-0 and locked a 3-2 victory for the national table tennis team.
Batra is a leading figure in women's table tennis in India.
Sun said that despite the challenges, it was still a good result to be able to win the competition. As the world No. 1 player, her defeat in the first match of the Olympic year was highly anticipated. After the match, she also mentioned that she was not comfortable with the special style of play of the Indian players, saying: "For example, I and my opponent in the first game, none of us have ever played against her, only Chen Xingtong has played against her, so we don't know enough about her spin and playing style. However, Sun Yingsha also stressed that the main reason for her defeat in the first game was more due to herself, and she did not do a good job of grasping and handling key points.
The Chinese women's table tennis team will face Uzbekistan at 12 noon on February 17, which is their second match in the group stage.
"Strange gum" produced in India
It's a headache.
The Indian women's table tennis team has made phenomenal progress in recent years, and the key to its success has been to achieve unexpected victories with its "weird glue" and unique style of play.
India's Sutirta Mukherjee Aishka Mukherjee won the quarter-finals of the women's doubles at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on 30 September 2023, beating China's Chen Meng and Wang Yidi to reach the women's doubles semi-finals. Although they lost to the North Koreans in the semi-finals, the bronze medal has become the first Asian Games women's doubles medal in Indian table tennis history.
This Indian duo has aroused the amazement and curiosity of netizens! They look ordinary, but their record is extraordinary. In fact, their secret is the rubber that sticks to the rackets, and the Indian pair has four different rubber sheets on each of their two boards.
Sutilta uses reverse glue on the one hand and long glue on the other; On the other hand, Ischka uses raw rubber and arc resistant glue on the other. Table tennis star Deng Yaping analyzed after the game that Chen Meng and Wang Yidi lost because they couldn't adapt to the playing style of the two "strange ball players" in India, "they couldn't accurately perceive the spin, so they didn't dare to take the initiative to pick the ball, and once they rubbed back, they were easy to be smashed by the opponent." ”
The Chinese team has actually carried out special training for rare rubber, and if an athlete uses a "strange board" during the game, the national table tennis players have the ability to adapt quickly. However, at that time, the Indian duo used four different rubber sheets to take turns and the challenge escalated, and they even developed a variety of peculiar tactical combinations that would be difficult for their opponents to deal with.
According to reports, in the match on February 16, Mukherjee defeated Sun Yingsha with raw rubber elongated rubber, while Akula defeated Wang Yidi with anti-rubber elongated rubber. In addition, the match between Batra and Akula was also fierce.
Mukherjee's anti-arc rubber is really difficult to deal with, and the three people used three different rubbers, which made Sun Yingsha suffer a big loss. In the national table tennis team, Mukherjee's anti-arc rubber has long been out of fashion, and it is difficult to find a sparring partner of a similar level, which was prevalent in the 80s of the last century.
However, there is something hidden behind it.
The ambition to surpass the Chinese team within 20 years.
In recent years, India has begun to strongly support the domestic table tennis league, and the scale of its participating teams has surpassed that of the earlier Japanese table tennis league. In addition to increasing the number of teams to ensure that players play games, the Indian league has also attracted many mid-to-high-level players, including players such as African "First Brother" Aruna and Chinese player Zhang An, who have played here.
India won a gold medal by beating Singapore 3-1 in the men's team final of the Commonwealth Games. This happened in August last year.
They had a notable run on their way to the final, even successfully sweeping the Nigerian side led by Aruna. In addition to the veteran Achanta's defeat of Aruna, Ghana's Nasekaran and Desai and other players have also shown considerable strength, which is worth mentioning.
India have risen rapidly in the women's field in recent years, especially with the Mukherjee sisters. They had already achieved a number of outstanding results before beating the Chinese pair at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, such as the WTT Tunisia in June last year, where they defeated Korea's Tian Zhixi Shin Yubin and Japan's Miyu Changmoto and Kihara Miyu.
Ghanasekaran, one of India's top table tennis players.
In recent years, India has struggled to compete for the international discourse in table tennis. On December 2, 2022, Indian table tennis star Achanta and Chinese table tennis star Liu Shiwen were both elected as the chair of the ITTF Athletes' Commission. Achanta, the first Indian athlete to win nine national titles, is now a central figure in the ITTF Athletes' Commission, which has played a huge role in the development of table tennis in India.
As early as 2021, when Gananaseca was still playing in the Japanese Table Tennis League, he made a bold statement: "We want to surpass the Chinese team in 20 years!" "Just like the development game, the Indian duo have scored key victories against South Korea, Japan and China in recent years. There is no doubt that they will be the focus of the Chinese team's research during the Paris Olympics cycle.