Olympics 2024: Sreeja Akula shines despite harrowing loss

The curtains came down on a spirited Indian performance at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles on Wednesday night at the Olympics in Paris. 

When Chinese paddler and world no.1 Sun Yingsha closed out the the fourth game to end Sreeja Akula's Olympic singles campaign, the Indian looked crestfallen.

For the casual reader, a scoreline of 4-0 against the world no.1 would seem like a one-sided affair but the contest was anything but it. 

Sreeja Akula, in the first game, had a four game point advantage wiped out. In the second game, she had five game points, which duly evaporated as well.

It was a comeback not even Sun Yingsha would be capable of on another day.

Saving nine game points across two games is not usual. It is extraordinary. 

Sreeja did not do anything wrong. In her maiden Olympics, she managed to stand up tall to arguably the best woman paddler in the world and gave her a run for the money. 

The victory was more due to the brilliance of the Chinese paddler and nothing else. 

"I am mentally well prepared to play against any opponent, whoever it is," Sreeja had said in an interview with Ultimate Table Tennis before the Paris Olympics. 

To Sreeja, the opponent did not matter. She simply let her padel do the talking. 

Mental fortitude 

The 26-year-old has gone from strength to strength in 2024, rising in the ranks to become India's highest-ranked paddler. 

She became the first Indian to win a WTT Contenders singles title, winning the WTT Contender Lagos event this year. 

Thanks to this result, she became the world no.24 and dethroned Manika Batra as India's highest-ranked paddler. 

The paddler attributes a lot of this success to her mental fortitude. 

“For the last two years, I have been working a lot on improving my mental strength and I think that is the first aspect where I have improved, especially in 2024," she had said before heading to Paris. 

The result is evident in the way Sreeja has progressed in the last couple of years. The most notable was her win over the world no.2 Wang Yidi of China at the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in 2023. 

Ahead of the Olympics, Sreeja headed to Chinese Taipei and underwent a rigorous training regimen, playing multiple opponents of varying styles to prepare herself for the Summer Games. 

Fitness and skill development

On top of all the work she did mentally to become calmer and more composed, she also attributes her success to the work she did to improve her conditioning. 

Talking to UTT, she had said, "I have also been working a lot on my strength and conditioning, especially to prevent injuries, and to improve my agility on the table."

In addition to that, she has also worked a lot on improving her attacking game and that has been evident in her showing through the Olympics thus far.

Her forehand play was brilliant against all her opponents, especially across the diagonal. 

She used her defensive setup to force her opponents to play it to her forehand and from there, she would either go diagonal or play the ball into the body across the short side of the table. 

She has also improved on her counter-attacking game and caused quite a few problems with it, especially against the world no.1 Sun Yingsha. 

Amongst the very best 

With her performances this year and now at the Paris Olympics, Sreeja has announced herself to the world in becoming the second Indian paddler to qualify for the round of 16 at the Olympics.

She faced a very tricky opponent in Zeng Jian and overcame her with minimal fuss. 

She then took the game to Sun Yinghsa and although she could not end up victorious, she has shown that she is amongst the very best paddlers in the entire world and her world ranking doesn't do justice to her skill level.

With the women's team event still left to play, Sreeja's story at the Paris Olympics is not over just yet. 

Along with Manika Batra, the Indian team looks formidable and if Sreeja continues to play the way she has, the Olympic medal is not entirely out of sight.