How Sathiyan modified his recreation to beat World No. 9 Dang Qiu at TT Worlds

It was all going downhill. India’s top-ranked paddler G Sathiyan had simply misplaced the primary two video games 10-12, 7-11 towards World No. 9 Germany’s Dang Qiu on the World Table Tennis Team Championships in Chengdu, China and it appeared sure that the European champions and World No. 2 aspect would stage the tie 2-2 and take it to a decider.

But India have been on a excessive. Sathiyan, within the first match of the tie, had come again from two video games right down to beat Thirty sixth-ranked Duda Benedikt 3-2 (11-13, 4-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9) and although National Games champion Harmeet Desai was outplayed 1-3 (7-11, September 11, 13-11, 3-11) by Qiu within the second match, Manav Thakkar had punched means above his weight to beat Ricardo Walther 3-1 (13-11, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10) and provides India a 2-1 lead.

Sathiyan, captaining the aspect within the absence of 10-time nationwide champion Sharath Kamal, knew he needed to do one thing extraordinary to stage a comeback.

National coach S Raman, who was earlier Sathiyan’s private coach, noticed that Qiu was a tad uncomfortable within the first recreation when Sathiyan was altering his tempo.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧… 🎢

🇮🇳 upset second seeds 🇩🇪 within the group stage of the continuing ITTF Worlds 2022.

The scoreline apart, the tie was full of surprises.

𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲: https://t.co/PNAMy788GV#ITTFWorlds2022 | #Chengdu2022 pic.twitter.com/77NvWcqNLe

— Olympic Khel (@OlympicKhel) October 2, 2022

“All Raman sir asked me to do was to keep mixing my serves and keep changing the pace of the rallies. He just motivated me, saying that I need to believe that I can win,” Sathiyan instructed The Indian Express after the match.

When he was trailing 3-5 within the third recreation, Sathiyan combined up his serves which appeared to perplex Qiu. He simply couldn’t alter to Sathiyan’s variations and misplaced the sport 11-8. The subsequent recreation was on related strains. Qiu simply couldn’t cope with Sathiyan’s serves and attain and the Indian levelled the match at 2-2.

Though Qiu appeared a bit shaken, he regained his composure and didn’t permit Sathiyan to dominate the ultimate recreation. That’s when Sathiyan tried every part his coach instructed him. He switched up the tempo within the lengthy rallies, managed to succeed in and return Qiu’s thunderous smashes and was simply throwing up completely different serves each time.

The plan succeeded. Qiu and Germany have been distraught. Sathiyan had his arms outstretched, celebrating. One may see how a lot it meant to him. India had pulled off one in all their largest victories, over a group that had gained the silver medal on the Tokyo Olympics.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest victories our team has pulled off. All credit goes to Raman sir who chalked out a plan for each opponent. During the games when we were losing momentum, he kept saying that he believed in us and that we could pull this off,” Sathiyan stated.

What additionally helped the Tamil Nadu paddler was the truth that Dang was his teammate at German Bundesliga’s high division membership ASV Grunwettersbach Tischtennis in 2018. So, he knew his strengths and the form of recreation he performs.

“Though I knew his game, he’s improved a lot. After the pandemic, he’s taken his game to a different level. But what has stayed the same is that if you get into a long rally with him, he’ll likely get the better of you. After the second game, I was reminded of that and decided to completely vary my game every point,” Sathiyan stated.

When requested the place this win would charge among the many victories in his profession, Sathiyan stated that although he’s overwhelmed then present World No. 4 Tomokazu Harimoto on the 2019 Asian Championships, that win got here in a dropping trigger.

“This was special because we not only won the match but the tie,” he stated.

With this win, India have 4 factors from two video games and have put themselves in an important place to complete on the high of their group, one thing which Sathiyan says will give them an important benefit within the knockouts.

“Finishing at the top means we’ll play against a team that has finished second in their group. That could be great for us,” he stated.

They face a troublesome check in Kazakhstan on Monday earlier than their final group tie towards France on Tuesday.

Women notch up 1st win

In the ladies’s draw, India recorded their first win of the group stage with a 3-0 end result over Czech Republic.

The Manika Batra-led aspect had misplaced to Germany in an in depth encounter on Saturday.

Manika defeated Hana Matelova 3-1 (11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 12-10) within the first singles earlier than Akula Sreeja and Diya Chitale gained their singles towards Marketa Sevcikova and Katerina Tomanovska, 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.