Playing a higher-ranked Romania was always going to be a tough battle for India but the team of Manika, Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath had a dream start to the best-of-five match.

Sreeja and Archana, who combined to win the doubles title at the WTT Contender in Lagos, took off from where they left, beating the experienced pair of Adina and 35-year-old Elizabeta Samara in straight games to put India ahead in the match.

The team event starts with the doubles match and then has four singles. Each player can play in only two matches. Though Sreeja is higher ranked than Manika, the latter is more experienced and therefore coach Massimo Constantini’s choice to play the two singles. It’s not always going to be the same though, and Manika could play doubles with her former partner Archana in the quarterfinal which will be against the winner of the match between the USA and Germany.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Table Tennis – Women’s Team Round of 16 – South Paris Arena 4, Paris, France – August 05, 2024. Team of India Sreeja Akula of India, Manika Batra of India and Archana Girish Kamath of India celebrate with their coach after winning the round of 16 team match against team of Romania. (REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji)

It’s imperative that India do well in their doubles matches further into the tournament and it’s something that coach Constantini has been focusing on since he took over only two months ago.

“It’s the first match of the tie. Table tennis is all about momentum. If we win that match, we need to win only two of the four singles. Manika and Sreeja can beat anyone on their day,” Constantini had told The Indian Express.

Against a slightly rusty Romanian pair, Sreeja and Archana were able to win despite not playing their best table tennis. Archana, who made the team ahead of the favoured Ayhika Mukherjee, looked overawed by the occasion. Playing her first-ever match at the Olympics, she looked a bit hasty, making a slurry of unforced errors. She got the point that counted though, in an emphatic fashion too. India were down 9-10 in the second when Archana played a fabulous crosscourt forehand topspin to send the game to tie-breakers where India prevailed.

Manika vs Bernadette was always going to be a blockbuster. Good friends off the table, but the fiercest rivals when facing each other. Manika with her nails painted in colours of the Indian flag, Bernadette with blue, yellow and red ribbons on her head matching that of the Romanian flag.

Bernadette was the higher-ranked player and even led their head-to-head 5-4. That didn’t matter in the form Manika was in. She raced to a 11-5 win in the first, was smart in her 11-7 win in the second before completing the rout with a 10-4 win in the third.

Suddenly, India was just one victory away from advancing to the quarterfinal and Sreeja was up against the experienced Samara. After going 2-1 up it seemed India were going to wrap it up in straight games but Samara banked on her experience to fight back. Sreeja, who lost to World No. 1 Sun Yingsha in the women’s singles Round of 16 despite having nine game points in the first two games, struggled to set up her points or even return Samara’s taps and topspins.

Romania could smell a comeback as Bernadette then took on Archana. Though the Indian, ranked 121st in the world, managed to pull one game back, she was no match for Bernadette who won 3-1 to send the tie into the decider.

It was then a Manika show. The only time Adina was ahead was in the second game when she led 8-5. But Manika stuck to her basics. She defended with her pimpled rubber on her backhand before launching into forehand attacks of her own. It was more of the same in the third as Manika and India took the match.

Somehow, the Indian women beating a World No. 4 team is no longer called an upset. That’s credit to the level Manika and Sreeja have reached in the past couple of years. At the Olympics though, tougher tests await them. If they manage to win their quarterfinal, they will most likely take on Japan in the semifinals. They would already have one eye on that.