BATRA Manika

Grip
Shakehand (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

Style of play
Attack (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

General
COACHING CHANGE
In 2018 she ended her partnership with coach Sandeep Gupta, who began coaching her at age eight. After dropping to 76th in the world rankings the following year, she began working under Sanmay Paranjape. "I think coaches should realise that a player wants something else. It's not about me, many players, like Roger Federer, have changed coaches. In the beginning, he [Gupta] was not that happy. But I wanted to go, I wanted some change. For my game, I want to be selfish, it's about me." (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 02 Aug 2019; timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 16 Oct 2019; olympicchannel.com, 23 Sep 2019; olympicchannel.com, 01 Sep 2018)

RUBBER CHOICE
She uses long pimpled rubber on the backhand side of her bat, and normal rubber on the forehand side. "If someone is hitting a top spin, I can stop that with my pimpled rubber side and then I can change the side and play with a normal rubber. It was tough in the beginning but now I am used to it. Now most of the players are using this technique. Many players play with short pimple but I play with the long pimple. I am doing great with my rubber setting. The other players think it has made a difference to my game." (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 02 Aug 2019)

TOKYO TARGET
She viewed the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she was eliminated in the first round, as a test run for future Games. "In 2016 when I played in my first Olympics, I was nervous and excited. I wasn't aiming for a medal, but wanted to feel the environment. After that, I started setting targets. I had to focus on my fitness. At that time I wasn't that fit. My movement was not that good. I worked on my fitness and different strokes and it worked for me." (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 02 Aug 2019)

BODY LANGUAGE
She says maintaining a positive body language is an important part of her game. "Body language is very important. I had learnt this quite early. I was playing a [match] in which I was leading, but I was a bit down in that game, and that affected my body language. I was a bit nervous and the opponent can sense that. We should always maintain a good body language and not let our opponents sense any kind of nervousness. We should display strength and show that we can come back from any position. I have learnt that I should have an aggressive body language on the court, not off it." (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, 02 Aug 2019)

She became the first table tennis player representing India to win a medal in women's singles at the Commonwealth Games, when she won gold at the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia. She was also part of the first Indian team to win gold in the women's team event at the 2018 Games. (SportsDeskOnline, 20 May 2021; olympicchannel.com, 23 Sep 2019; scroll.in, 02 Jun 2020)

She became the first female Indian to win a medal in table tennis at the Asian Games, when she won bronze in the mixed doubles alongside Sharath Achanta at the 2018 edition in Indonesia. (SportsDeskOnline, 20 May 2021; theyouth.in, 01 Sep 2020)