By Neha Aggarwal
Today, India celebrated its 68th Republic Day. The Indian flag was hoisted at the Abhay Prashal Indoor Stadium where the matches are being played in Indore. Undoubtedly, Archana was determined to make a mark on her performance today.
She won in six games (10-12, 12-10, 11-4, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5).
Earlier in the day Mak Tze Wing said, “I feel confident. I have seen Archana play many times, but I am confident that I will do well.”
However, Archana had some more plans. “I take one match at a time. I felt very confident today” said Archana. “I really enjoyed playing against Mak Tze Wing. It feels so good to beat the world championship silver medalist.”
Archana looked extremly determined from the word go. She was aggressive, and seemed self assured in her game play. She explained,
“I was enjoying today so much that I didn’t know what was going around. I put all my focus and energies in the game today. Everything came so naturally!”
Her coach Massimo Costantini advised her to keep her attack on. After the last point Archana won, his fists went up in the air celebrating the win. “Coach told me to keep attacking. Her backhand is really good, thus I played more to her centre and forehand” said Archana.
In the third and final round of the qualification matches, Archana will face USA’s Amy Wang on day two, Friday 27th January at 10:00am IST. But her preparation starts tonight. “Amy has a completely different style of play as compared to Mak Tze Wing. Coach Massimo and I will do a video analysis of her game tonight. We will come up with some strategies and I will try to apply them tomorrow in the game.”
She is determined to win this one, and if she does, she will progress to the quarter-final stage.
Watch the match LIVE on 27th January 2017 on ITTF’s YouTube channel.
