I need to work on my fitness to beat top players, says Manika Batra
Coming from her Gold Coast campaign, where she clinched two gold medals, one silver and one bronze, table tennis ace Manika Batra has emphasised highly on her fitness skills required to beat top players. She also expressed her ambition of popularizing table tennis in India.
In the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, Manika Batra has captured everyone's eyes by bagging four medals in all the four events that she participated in; which also included an unprecedented gold in the women's singles and team championship. However, the recent success has only pushed her quest to improve in the bigger stages. The 22-year-old feels there are a lot of areas to address in coming times and fitness will be the main focus.
“Well, I would need to work more on my fitness as the sport is very fast and it is required to beat the top players. I need to be a little
Manika won the battle against triple Olympic medallist and World No.4 Feng Tianwei of Singapore to lead the Indian women's team to a historic gold before beating Singapore's second highest ranked Mengyu Yuin in the women's singles semi-finals, on her way to another gold. Speaking about her mindset before high-pressure contests, Manika stated that she didn't bother about the high rankings of her opponents.
"I do not think much about the opponent's ranking when I face them as I believe I have my techniques in right place. But having said that I am really happy and satisfied to have beaten her (Feng) twice. I had to change my game in both the matches and made little adjustments which helped me beat her. I knew I could win and stayed focused and stuck to my strategy," the world No.48 answered.
Manika remained ambitious that her recent success could be a temptation for other players to embrace the game. She also has plans to replicate the same thing in table-tennis the way star shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu have done with badminton in India. And given the steady rise in the players in India, she has the belief that it won't be too far away.
“It is a wonderful feeling to have won so many medals in such a huge event and to have made the country proud. I was confident about my chances but never thought that I would win so many medals so, yeah, I am very happy about my achievements, she said adding that it was surreal feeling and I hope to continue my good work," she concluded.
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