Focus on placement more than power does the trick for Sreeja

After her 2023 low, the 26-year-old table tennis player from Hyderabad won events and rose to a high of world No 21

- Shahid Judge

MUMBAI: Sreeja Akula remembers December 2023 as a period of frustration. She had struggled to win matches in the main draw of table tennis tour events. And her target of breaking into the top 50 in world rankings remained a hurdle too high; she spent most of the season lingering in the 80s and 90s.

A year on, Akula is looking back at a season where she competed beyond expectations. She won three tour events, including a WTT Contender title – the first Indian to achieve that.

She beat China's then world No. 2 Wang Yidi at the Team World Championships, and was a part of the Indian women's team that medalled at the Asian Championships for the first time, claiming bronze.

Along the way, she became only the second Indian to reach the round of 16 in singles at the Paris Olympics.

To top it all, she reached a career high of 21 – the best-ever ranking achieved by an Indian in singles. "This time last year I was very unhappy with my performance," she told HT.