A lot of things have come slightly belatedly in the table tennis career of Sreeja Akula: her first international singles title, a breakthrough in the top 50 world rankings. What she does hope to lock in early, however, is a 2024 Paris Olympics spot, both for the Indian women’s team and herself.
The ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals, beginning in Busan from Friday, presents the first opportunity to do that (it’s the last for team events; singles spots can still be booked via continental qualifiers and world rankings later this year). A total of 40 teams will vie for the eight team quota spots on offer for men and women each, with every qualified team also getting two quota places for the singles events.
While the women are drawn with China, the powerhouses whom India play first up on Friday, Hungary, Spain and Uzbekistan in Group 1, the men are clubbed with Korea, Poland, Chile and New Zealand in Group 3. The quarter-finalists will be rewarded with a Paris ticket, and Sreeja is eager to grab it in the 10-day event.
“We have a good team this time, and almost every player is coming on the back of some good results. We will look to get the Olympics spot from this tournament itself, so that we can focus completely on preparing for Paris after that,” Sreeja said.
Both the men and women had failed to secure a team spot at the Tokyo Olympics, with the women’s team losing its playoff match to France 3-2. What’s different this time is the support system around their top-ranked player, world No. 36 Manika Batra. The rise of Sreeja, who wasn’t part of the team vying for a Tokyo berth, exemplifies that, and her recent run of results exudes confidence for her and the team to pull off something they haven’t managed to ever.
Earlier this week, Sreeja broke into the top 50 of the WTT women’s rankings for the first time in her career, a goal the world No. 49 had drawn out when she was ranked outside the top 100 just nine months ago. The 25-year-old was eager to improve her world rankings, “get into the top 100, then 80, 50”.
“I had been yearning for this,” Sreeja said of her rankings rise. “I’m happy to see where I am today, and I want to keep building on this. The ranking reflects the progress I’ve made over the last few months, and adds to my confidence.”
The biggest shot of confidence was injected when she won the WTT Feeder Corpus Christi last month. It was the 2022 Commonwealth Games mixed doubles champion’s first singles title at the international level after years of success confined to the domestic circuit. Playing that Feeder event (a rung below the WTT Contender circuit) in Texas was a calculated move, despite a hectic dash after featuring in the WTT Star Contender Doha and before turning up for the WTT Star Contender Goa. Not only did it give Sreeja victories over higher-ranked players (No. 35 Amy Wang in the quarters, No. 32 Lily Zhang in the final), but also the unmatched feel of going all the way in a tournament which, despite her giant-killing ability to cause upsets in big tournaments, she had yet to experience.
“My coach and I had decided to play that event despite it being so far, and I’m happy it paid off. That tournament gave me a lot of belief — that I belong to this level. When you win an event, especially beating players who are ranked higher than you, your mindset completely changes,” Sreeja said.
That was evident at the Star Contender in Goa, where Sreeja made the quarter-finals beating world No. 30 Hana Goda in the Round of 32 and the then No. 33 Hoi Kem Doo in the pre-quarters. The stretch of results this year so far have been positive after an inconsistent year-and-a-half post her 2022 CWG exploits that surprised many. All along, though, Sreeja kept working on her game, which is no longer heavily reliant on her pimpled rubber.
“I have improved my forehand quite a bit over the last year or so. I realised that I needed to better my forehand attack to complement my backhand (off the pimpled rubber), and I have been working on that. And my fitness as well. It has helped me move a lot better during rallies,” she said.
The previous World Team Championships a couple of years ago was quite memorable for Sreeja, who had beaten three top-50 players while winning four of her six matches as the women had a creditable Round of 16 finish. While she takes a lot of good memories from that, Sreeja realises this is a fresh tournament, with a lot more at stake. Both for her and the team.