How a tactical switch to attack helped Manika Batra beat Prithika Pavade, become first Indian to reach Rd16 in singles at Olympics

Twiddle and tap, twiddle and tap, and then twiddle and tap some more. India’s table tennis sensation Manika Batra twiddled and tapped her way into the history books with a straight game 4-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9, 11-7) win over home favourite Prithika Pavade in their Round of 32 table tennis clash in women’s singles event at the Olympics on Monday.

In doing so, the paddler from Delhi created history by becoming the first Indian to reach the Round of 16 in singles at the Olympics. The 29-year-old Manika, ranked 28th in the world, was not only playing a higher-ranked Prithika, who’s currently at her career-best ranking of World No. 18, but also against the boisterous French crowd who were naturally supporting the home athlete.

Manika plays with long pimples on the backhand. Now that is a defensive rubber that not only slows down the pace of the opponent’s attack but also reverses the spin. In order to attack with her backhand, Manika needs to flip her bat mid-rally and tap the ball with her backhand, only now, it’s the fast rubber that she taps it with. It’s a move that she’s made into an art. And she’s an artist.

Talking to The Indian Express from Paris, Aman Balgu says while twiddling was part of the gameplan against Prithika, it was Manika’s brilliance in knowing when to use it.

“You are playing an Olympic match against a home player so the pressure was immense. When she realised that her forehand smashes weren’t working, she decided to attack with her backhand. One may think that it’s easy, but it’s incredibly difficult to execute. She was also smart to target her opponent’s backhand, but she was also astute enough to switch it up with taps to her forehand too.

Manika Batra is through to the Round of 16 in Women's Singles! 🏓

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“We prepared for all scenarios, but actually executing the plan and then switching it up, is all Manika,” Balgu said.

At the start, a very confident-looking Manika was trying to slow down the game before unleashing her forehand topspin to the left-handed Prithika’s forehand side. It was successful in the close first game which Manika won 11-9 but in the second match, the French teenager, who was born in Puducherry (then Pondicherry), started returning Manika’s forehand smashes with ease. It’s when Manika realised that she’d have to do something different.

The twiddle is her trademark, and while she has been successful with it, she has traditionally used it to set up her forehand smash. It was only a couple of years ago, after a horrid show at the Tokyo Olympics and subsequently at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, when she asked her old friend Aman Balgu to coach her. The Bengaluru-based coach, a former national player himself asked only one thing of her — she has to attack more, and she should also use her pimpled rubber as an attacking tool.

“She has anyway changed the way players use the pimpled rubber with her twiddling, so why not attack with it too?” Balgu had told The Indian Express earlier this year.

From the second game against Prithika, she not only defended with her pimpled rubber but also tried to push the pace with it, waiting for the right moment to twiddle before unleashing a tap that confused her opponent and got her the point.

After wrapping up the second game easily, Manika was running away with the match in the third, with five game points in hand. Prithika knew she had to do something, and chose to take a timeout. It worked as she won three straight points to make it 10-8.

It was the only time in the match that Manika looked nervous. Her confident self was suddenly restless.

That’s when she looked at her personal coach Balgu who was sitting in the stands as the national coach Massimo Costantini is the only one accredited to sit on the bench whenever an Indian paddler is playing.

Balgu signalled to Manika to take a timeout. She understood and took it. With coach Constantini assuring her of her capabilities and that she doesn’t need to do anything fancy, Manika went back to the table more confident. She lost the next point but with only one game point in hand, served out the game.In the fourth, Manika was even more relentless, taking the game 11-6 to create history.

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Back home, it was to be a noisy, anxiously exciting night at the Batra household in Delhi, as her parents, her eternally optimistic grandmother who always believes Manika will win, the caretaking nurse and the house help all sat before the television sets for the post-midnight game. A bunch of relations from extended family were on call sharing the ebb and flow of the excitement.

Sushma Batra, Manika’s mother who isn’t fond of disturbing her at big events, says she stuck to normal routines. “Just Good Morning, Good night, All the best messages. I never call her, but she called after the win and I told her ‘well-done’. She said ‘mummy, main bohot khush hoo’. I think she played really well. As a mother, I could tell from the start of the match that her body language was very positive. She looked energetic today, and that’s important,” she said.

In the Rd of 16, Manika will most likely face World No. 13 Miu Hirano of Japan and it will be a huge test for her. Unlike Prithika, the 24-year-old Hirano stands closer to the table which will give Manika less time to twiddle. Hirano is much quicker with the forehand as well as the backhand and Manika simply can’t allow her a string of points like she allowed Prithika in the third game.

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