#RoadToTokyoOlympics: The 'BACKHAND' magic that makes Manika Batra special!

It was in 1988 when eight-time national champion Kamlesh Mehta became the first Indian table tennis player to participate in the Olympics Games. Cut to 2021, four Indian paddlers - Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manika Batra, and Sutirtha Mukherjee - booked their Tokyo Games tickets for singles. In addition to that, a mixed doubles berth was also sealed by Sharath Kamal and Batra, beating the top seeds at an Asian qualification event.

 

 

What amazes more is that Batra, the 25-year-old paddler from Delhi, has secured two berths at the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games - in women’s singles and mixed doubles. It is not the first time she is participating in Olympics. She had already played for the women's singles event in Rio Olympics 2016, but her appearance was short-lived, as she lost in the first round itself.

 

 

 

 

Born into a family where elder siblings Anchal and Sahil both took up table tennis, Manika tried her hand at the sport at the age of four. Early signs of natural ability came when she won a match in a state-wide tournament for Under-8 players. That was around the time she enrolled with Sandeep Gupta, her coach to date. Her coach inducted a method to work with Manika's strength, her backhand, and turn it into a potent weapon. She made to play with long-pimple rubber on her backhand and the more conventional inverted rubber on their forehand. This has made Manika's forehand considerably stronger over the years.

 

 

Now, she specializing in playing long pimples on her backhand, a rubber which is not often played by top players is something that makes her a very special player out of all the players. Her height is also one of the strengths that give her an edge over her opponents. Of course, the fitness, she has indulged in was one of the things that have always impressed her coach. In a generation where kids get bored to master at one aspect, Manika was always dedicated, and she continued to do whatever she was asked to without complaining.

 

 

 

She is part of a generation of players where she can revive the status of women's players in India, who have lagged behind the men for a variety of reasons. The World No. 62 will be a treat to watch as she has a proper balance of aggression and passive play. She has made it clear that she wants to shock at least one higher-ranked player in singles in Tokyo and her aim is to win a singles medal at the 2024 Olympics.

 

 

 

She is already the top-ranked Indian female player with the potential of becoming an icon of the sport that’s still growing in India. With Tokyo Olympics being away in less than 100 days, she is training in Pune. Table tennis in India is not often spoken of when talking about sporting success. There is no world No 1s or world champions yet. But the celebration comes from small yet significant achievements. And her achievements have already resulted in gaining the title of Khel Ratna Awardee.

 

She is one of the unsung heroes who have attained so much in her career yet she is not recognized on a wider scale. Debuting at a very young age, the paddler became one of India’s best paddlers. She is also the only Indian to have received The Breakthrough Star Award by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). She had achieved her career-best ranking in 2019 after ranking 47th in the world becoming a top-ranked female table tennis player in India. She went to win several gold medals in the South Asian Games and the Commonwealth games.