The pair of Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee continued to create historical past, securing a bronze medal after dropping their semifinal match on the Asian TT Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan on Sunday.
The duo had no reply to Japan’s Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara and misplaced in straight video games 3-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-9). Their opponents although, weren’t any pushovers. Harimoto was a part of Japan’s Paris 2024 Olympics silver-medal staff and Kihara is a three-time World Championships medal winner. Ayhika-Sutirtha have been assured going into the match having overwhelmed the pair of Harimoto and Kihara within the closing of WTT Tunis Contender final yr however the Japanese duo have simply upped their respective video games prior to now yr and regarded assured all through.
The dropping semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals at these Championships and so they turned the primary Indian girls’s doubles pair to win a medal right here.
Ayhika and Sutirtha have repeatedly raised the bar with regards to Indian girls’s doubles. They made historical past on the Asian Video games final yr by profitable a bronze, India’s first medal. Then in Tunis final yr, they turned the primary Indians to win the WTT Contender girls’s doubles title.
Whereas their win in Astana solely reaffirms that they will compete with the perfect, questions will probably be requested about what they should do to succeed in finals of top-level tournaments. Their finest efficiency this yr is reaching the Rd of 16 at each the Singapore and the Saudi Smash, and of their quest for a big-tournament medal, their performances at prime WTT tournaments have to enhance.
However first, one wants to grasp what works for them.
27-year-old Ayhika’s robust, defensive play slows the sport down, setting it up fantastically for Sutirtha’s thunderous smashes. Ayhika makes use of an anti-spin rubber on the backhand that reverses the spin. It’s a troublesome rubber to make use of as a result of it’s essential have nice management over the ball. To reverse the spin, she has to first gauge the spin the opponent is placing on the ball.
What works in doubles is that she’s in a position to play it nearer to the online and likewise takes the tempo off the shot. The spins she places on it could possibly puzzle the opponent and in the event that they play a free return, Sutirtha can end the purpose along with her highly effective forehand.
That’s actually been their very profitable gameplan all through, considerably dependant on how Ayhika can boggle the opponent and decelerate the sport.
One of many causes for Ayhika’s success, in keeping with her coach Soumyadeep Roy is as a result of she will be able to range her pictures by utilizing the identical motion.
“She will hit the ball with the identical motion, from the identical peak, however the opponent received’t understand how the ball will spin or whether or not it’s going to spin or not. It’s very troublesome for the opponent to grasp,” he stated.
The issue arises when a prime participant — like World No. 7 Harimoto who they performed within the semis on Sunday — is ready to return Sutirtha’s smashes with ease.
What occurs then?
Sutirtha’s forehand assault is returned with much more energy, a lot in order that Ayhika isn’t all the time profitable in slowing it down, as soon as extra. Her return is then met with a fair highly effective shot by the opponent, and Sutirtha, simply fails to succeed in it.
It’s how the Japanese pair received a lot of the factors on Sunday and Ayhika-Sutirtha must discover a resolution.
Roy says the pair have been working tirelessly ever since their Asian Video games medal and are enhancing day-after-day.
“It’s all the time the query of what can Ayhika and Surtitha do to enhance. We have to have a look at how a lot they’ve improved over the previous yr. Ayhika has overwhelmed the perfect gamers on the earth and that rubs off on Sutirtha too. Collectively they’re not petrified of taking up prime pairs. Earlier than going for this event they have been assured of medalling in doubles and now are already pondering of a World Championship medal,” he stated.
When requested what wants to alter for them to beat prime gamers, Roy stated that enhancing bodily and technically is all the time wanted.
“Even the highest gamers wish to enhance technically, so we’ll work on that. Sure, bodily they should enhance so their attain can get higher however total I feel they simply must preserve taking part in collectively in an effort to get greater outcomes,” he stated.
