Sreeja Akula created history at the WTT Contender in Lagos on Sunday by becoming the first Indian to clinch a singles title at a Contender level. Impressively, she also won the women’s doubles title, becoming the first Indian to win two titles at the same event at this level of World Table Tennis events.
With her singles triumph, Sreeja is set to reach a career-high ranking of World No. 25, becoming the highest-ranked Indian, leapfrogging Manika Batra, who has been India’s top female paddler for the majority of the last few years. Sreeja had already once gone past Batra earlier this year.
It was also the first time that India won a men’s doubles title after the Surat duo of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar beat local favourites Azeez Solanke and Olajide Omotayo 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-8).
Update: WTT Contender Lagos☑️#TableTennis🏓
Our talented paddlers clinched a total of 9⃣medals including 3 🥇 1 🥈 5 🥉
Take a look at the medallists and their respective categories:
Women’s Singles:-
1) Sreeja Akula:- 🥇
2) Sutirtha Mukherjee:- 🥉
3) Ayhika Mukherjee:-… pic.twitter.com/eQSyHiUqwk— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) June 23, 2024
In the first final of the day, Sreeja combined with her Paris Olympics teammate Archana Kamath to thrash compatriots Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 12-10) in the women’s doubles final.
You could sense that Sreeja was in a hurry to finish off the doubles final knowing that she had to a tricky women’s singles final to play next. But against Ding Yijie, her 16-year-old Chinese opponent who is ranked outside the top 500, Sreeja fought back from a game down to absolutely dominate the match and clinch the title with a 4-1 win (10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6).
Paris-bound Sreeja has been in phenomenal form in both singles and doubles. In singles, her 5-game win over Sutirtha Mukherjee in which she calmly saved three match points in the deciding game was mighty impressive. Her doubles partnership with Archana is important since they will most likely be the doubles pairing at the Paris Olympics in the women’s team event. It’s the first time India have qualified for the men and women’s team events at the Olympics and this WTT tournament was part of their preparation camp under recently-appointed head coach Massimo Costantini.
