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Table Tennis
After the success in Commonwealth Games, Indian women's Table Tennis team drawn with Singapore for World Championship
The Table Tennis action at the Commonwealth Games got over on April 14. Like most of us watching back home, we at The Bridge could not help but marvel at the absolute brilliant display that our paddlers put up in Gold Coast to ensure a medal in every category of the sport. Before the Gold Coast games, expectations had been high from a couple of paddlers at least, if not all. A slew of good performances by Manika Batra, incidentally, also the top-ranked Indian female paddler and the evergreen Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, World No 46- had proved to be formidable medal hopes. But, probably no one could have imagined that what happened in Gold Coast would ultimately be the way things eventually turned out. 
Perhaps what stood out, what could have been construed as the most historic of all achievements is that, in the women's category, the domination of teams and paddlers from Singapore was finally broken. Since the Women's team Event was started at the Commonwealth Games in 2002, Singapore has won the Gold in every edition since. What they had not reckoned for was the wonderfully imaginative strategy that was in the form of Manika Batra. Having successfully dominated over and controlled her opponents in almost every match, Manika Batra indeed announced her arrival. Since the beginning of 2018, the youngster from Delhi had been long threatening to achieve that final pinnacle of brilliance, kind of just simmering on the edge of it with several high profile victories on the international circuit in addition to Ultimate Table Tennis matches. And while the team of Manika, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Sutirtha Mukherjee induled in displays of individual brilliance, it is their performance as a team that is going to count more in the next couple of weeks. Basically, if you thought that most of our brilliant girls and their amazing teamwork would be seen again only at the Asian Games, you had clearly forgotten about the World Team Table Tennis Championship that is scheduled to be held in Liebherr from April 29. And what's more. If, additionally, you had also thought that the classic India vs Singapore clashes in the Commonwealth Games had ended with the tournament itself, it was a wrong assumption. The Women's Team from India have been drawn in Group A and Singapore are in the same group too. 
Women's team draws The other teams in Group A include China, Russia, Belarus and Sweden in what promises to be a very exciting clash of the Titans. The Indian Women's team will definitely be looking to carry the momentum forward along with the experience and brilliance that they have gained at the Commonwealth Games. However, it is worth remembering that the pool of countries within the Commonwealth are really very limited. While they also include tough competitors like Singapore, the exclusion of countries like Korea and China often pave the way forward for Commonwealth countries to win the accolades they do. Meanwhile, the Men's team have been drawn in Group D in an equally tough competition fray which includes countries like France, Korea Republic, Austria Croatia and Poland. 
Men's team draws What are we going to see transpire in Liebherr. Our guess that an improvisation of strategy is in order if one is to successfully compete and stand tall along with the rest of the world. For now, one thing is clear. There is absolutely no time to stop and revel in the success of Table Tennis in the Commonwealth Games. It's time to put the achievements behind us and concentrate, instead, on learning from mistakes and getting better in what remains of 2018
Perhaps what stood out, what could have been construed as the most historic of all achievements is that, in the women's category, the domination of teams and paddlers from Singapore was finally broken. Since the Women's team Event was started at the Commonwealth Games in 2002, Singapore has won the Gold in every edition since. What they had not reckoned for was the wonderfully imaginative strategy that was in the form of Manika Batra. Having successfully dominated over and controlled her opponents in almost every match, Manika Batra indeed announced her arrival. Since the beginning of 2018, the youngster from Delhi had been long threatening to achieve that final pinnacle of brilliance, kind of just simmering on the edge of it with several high profile victories on the international circuit in addition to Ultimate Table Tennis matches. And while the team of Manika, Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Sutirtha Mukherjee induled in displays of individual brilliance, it is their performance as a team that is going to count more in the next couple of weeks. Basically, if you thought that most of our brilliant girls and their amazing teamwork would be seen again only at the Asian Games, you had clearly forgotten about the World Team Table Tennis Championship that is scheduled to be held in Liebherr from April 29. And what's more. If, additionally, you had also thought that the classic India vs Singapore clashes in the Commonwealth Games had ended with the tournament itself, it was a wrong assumption. The Women's Team from India have been drawn in Group A and Singapore are in the same group too. Women's team draws The other teams in Group A include China, Russia, Belarus and Sweden in what promises to be a very exciting clash of the Titans. The Indian Women's team will definitely be looking to carry the momentum forward along with the experience and brilliance that they have gained at the Commonwealth Games. However, it is worth remembering that the pool of countries within the Commonwealth are really very limited. While they also include tough competitors like Singapore, the exclusion of countries like Korea and China often pave the way forward for Commonwealth countries to win the accolades they do. Meanwhile, the Men's team have been drawn in Group D in an equally tough competition fray which includes countries like France, Korea Republic, Austria Croatia and Poland. Men's team draws What are we going to see transpire in Liebherr. Our guess that an improvisation of strategy is in order if one is to successfully compete and stand tall along with the rest of the world. For now, one thing is clear. There is absolutely no time to stop and revel in the success of Table Tennis in the Commonwealth Games. It's time to put the achievements behind us and concentrate, instead, on learning from mistakes and getting better in what remains of 2018Next Story
