Ayhika, Sathiyan miss out on India's TT teams for Paris
Sharath and Manika will lead the men's and women's squads at the Games
Four-time Olympian Sharath Kamal and India No. 1 Manika Batra will lead India's three-member men's and women's teams respectively at the Paris Olympics as the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) announced the squads, which had one notable surprise in Ayhika Mukherjee not finding a place in the women's team.
The TTFI selection committee, which met in New Delhi on Thursday and also sought inputs from Italian Massimo Costantini who is set to return as national coach, named Manika, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath for the three-member women's team while keeping Ayhika as as alternate player. The men's team comprised Sharath, Harmeet Desai and young Manav Thakkar with G Sathiyan as the standby.
TTFI, in a media statement, admitted "there was a debate over the third player for the women's squad". It however justified picking Archana over Ayhika — she has had some remarkable results over the last year including playing a crucial role at the World Team Table Tennis Championships — in stating that the former "scored over the latter on several counts, including her world ranking (No.103)" being 33 places ahead of Ayhika. Team events for the Olympics in table tennis, featuring four singles and one doubles contests, only allow for three-member squads.
What also could've gone in Archana's favour, despite her not having the kind of attention-grabbing results as Ayhika lately, was her doubles combination with Manika. The duo has played doubles together on the WTT circuit, reaching as high as world No. 4 in the rankings in 2022 although they haven't played as a pair of late. Fielding them for the doubles tie in the team events in Paris could be an option which, considering the similar playing styles of both paddlers, would not have been the case with Ayhika.
"We (Manika and I) have had a few conversations about it (doubles)," Archana said. "There is one doubles tie within the team events, and there are a few combinations that we could work with. We (Manika and her) have played before, and we may play a couple of tournaments again before the Olympics. It’s a dream come true for me to be selected for the Olympics,” the youngster from Bengaluru added. “We have a very able team and I’m looking forward to what we can do in Paris.”
For Ayhika, the standby tag might be a tough pill to swallow. Her Asian Games doubles medal partnering Sutirtha Mukherjee was historic, and her singles show at this year's team Worlds, where she defeated world No. 1 Chinese Sun Yingsha and also beat a few other higher-ranked players, was stunning. She was also ranked No. 2 in singles in TTFI's domestic rankings at the end of 2023 (Archana was 3rd).
The men's team was picked pretty much as per the world rankings, with the 40th-ranked Sharath being the first choice followed by Thakkar (No. 62) and Desai (No. 63). Sathiyan, the former India No. 1 whose ranking is currently down to 68, missed out.
For the two singles entries in both events that came along with the team qualifications, the selection committee picked Sharath and Desai for men and Manika and Sreeja for women.