Winning knockout matches under pressure was heartening, says Sreeja’s coach Somnath after Nationals title

“Yes, we were definitely upset and even in shock at the string of failures both at the national and international levels. More so these coming in the year of Olympics qualification,” Sreeja’s coach, Somnath informed Sportstar.

Coach Somnath Ghosh and two-time national champion Sreeja Akula. | Photo Credit: V. V. Subrahmanyam/The Hindu

A day after boxer Nikhat Zareen crowned herself with a second World championship gold, fellow Hyderabadi, 24-year-old Sreeja Akula retained the Senior national women’s singles and doubles titles besides a team bronze in the mixed doubles in the Jammu Nationals in style.

And, it was never easy either for the star paddler or for the coach Somnath Ghosh, who has been guiding Sreeja since about 10 years of age at the one-room, single-table Global Table Tennis Academy in the city long back.

“Yes, we were definitely upset and even in shock at the string of failures both at the national and international levels. More so these coming in the year of Olympics qualification,” Somnath informed  Sportstar. 

“Nothing seemed to be working out for her, often leading to self-doubt and desperation. And she started fumbling in the initial rounds of even national-ranking tournaments,” she said.

What really hurt the successful coach-player duo was that the slump in form followed the Commonwealth gold medal.

Then the mantra for success? “She was a little inconsistent on the backhand side because she always wants to play the forehand more. I asked her to keep her forearm strong while playing backhand and I asked her to stand in the middle and play equally backhand and forehand,” Somnath revealed. “This worked wonders,” said a delighted coach.

“We were at a loss to understand what was going wrong. Fortunately, Sreeja’s parents Praveen Kumar and Sai Sudha and the sponsors CtrlS, UTT, Raheja and PWC were backing us to the hilt even in those trying times,” the coach said even while thanking TTFI general secretary Kamlesh Mehta and the TTTA secretary B. Nagender Reddy, for always encouraging them.

“Every tournament is crucial for Olympic qualification and Sreeja was obviously supposed to do well at all levels,” he added.

“Well, there were some minor health issues too which Sreeja had to sort out. And, we had to re-work our strategies and as part of this effort, she worked with the Pune-based mental conditioning trainer Gayathri Varthak before the Nationals,” Somnath revealed.

“The fact that she won crucial matches in the knockouts when facing elimination was really heartening. It was never easy to play the highest number of matches in the Jammu Nationals which again was possible because of the fitness trainer Hirak Bagchi,” the proud coach said.