Manika Batra: Paddling dream into reality

Manika Batra was one of the many girls in the country hoping to emulate her idols — champion sportswomen.

A girl who watched with twinkling eyes the likes of Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom bring glory to the country for over a decade. A girl who had similar aspirations with a table tennis racquet in her hands. A girl who wanted to be a Saina or a Mary Kom.

Think about how a 16-year-old Saina's bronze at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games made her burst on to the world stage and changed the face of Indian badminton in the years to come. Think about how Mary Kom's incredible medal at the 2012 London Olympics inspired a generation of girls to punch their way to the pinnacle of Indian boxing as well as sports in general.

The 22-year-old Batra's 2018 Commonwealth Games performance is bound to be a new such chapter in the book of India's shining sportswomen, giving the country not just another Saina or Mary Kom, but a new Batra.

And by the unassuming girl's admission, she couldn't have possibly scripted this chapter alone.

"Whenever I watched Mary Kom, Saina, (PV) Sindhu on television, I used to dream of achieving similar success," Batra tells DNA.

"Now I am getting all that, it is a great feeling," she adds.

Accolades poured in from all over for Indian sports' new poster girl including from prime minister Narendra Modi, and she returned home to glittering, never-seen-before welcome ceremonies.

Yet, for this simple Delhi girl, something else meant more than all the hoopla.

"I have been wished by everyone including our prime minister Narendra Modi, which was a great honour for me.

"But my mom receiving me at the airport and continuously kissing me and congratulating me on the win is something which will be the most special thing for me. She is really very proud of my achievement," she says.

Why wouldn't she?

Her four medals in Gold Coast — twin historic gold in singles and team besides silver in women's doubles and bronze in mixed — over an incredible 11 days for Indian table tennis made her the new toast of the country.

For Batra, though, those 11 days still remain a bit of a haze.

"It is still sinking in," she says of her feat. "I think I will need a couple of more days before it totally sinks in."

India's highest-ranked female table tennis player at No. 58, Batra knew she could deliver a fairly good show at this CWG, but never a fairy tale like this.

"I was confident about my chances, but I never thought that I would win so many medals. I am very happy about what I have been able to achieve, to have won so many medals in such a huge event and to have made the country proud. It is a surreal feeling," she says.

No-phone policy

A surreal effort backed by lifestyle changes. Batra's preparations for this CWG involved more of changes to her mindset than skills, realising that it was imperative for the mind to be at its optimum in order to get past the mighty Singaporeans.

And one of her ways to keep the mind fresh was a no-phone policy as soon as the Games began.

"As far as my game is concerned, I didn't do anything different in terms of my preparations. But I did a lot of mental conditioning.

"I stayed away from all distractions and my mind was focussed only on my game. Never did I think of anything else apart from playing and I switched off my phone as soon as the team event began.

"I used to use my team-mates' phones to communicate with people whenever I had to. So, that was the mental aspect that I worked on a lot before and during the Games," she says.

That mental conditioning ensured she stunned world No. 4 Feng Tianwei of Singapore to lead her team to the gold in the team event, before she came back to down Tianwei again in the singles semifinals and Singapore's second-highest ranked player, Mengyu Yu, in the final.

"The way we played in the team event and after having beaten some good players, I knew I could do it in the singles event as well," she says.

Batra's immediate goal is the World Team Championships starting in Sweden from April 29, and the long-term one is to sustain this level over the next couple of years culminating to the 2020 Tokyo Games.

And if she as well as her table tennis colleagues can manage to do that despite the tougher competition that will come their way, Batra is confident that 10 years down the line, table tennis can be where badminton now is in the country.

"It will definitely be a challenge but I believe we have enough quality to be able to sustain this kind of performance.

"I absolutely believe in this and if we could continue our form, table tennis will definitely become like badminton," she says.

Whether that happens is a question for the future, but one thing is for sure, Batra is not just any other starry-eyed girl any more.

'Exposure tours, UTT have helped us'

Manika Batra said the Indian players' participation in the ITTF Pro Tour as well as the advent of leagues the Ultimate Table Tennis in the country have been the factors behind the paddlers' improved showing recently. "I think as a federation, TTFI (Table Tennis Federation in India) has done a lot and with the kind of exposure that we got over the last couple of years, including playing on the Pro Tours have helped us a lot," she said. "The league has also helped a lot, especially the Indian players. We got the chance to play and train with the higher-ranked players, which has helped us learn a thing or two. Personally speaking, I had played and beaten higher ranked players in UTT which gave me a lot of confidence," she added.