Olympics 2021: 3 takeaways from Indian table tennis star Sutirtha Mukherjee's round 2 match

Indian table tennis star Sutirtha Mukherjee bowed out of the women's singles event in the second round on Monday. Sutirtha went down to Portugal's Fu Yu 0-4 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym in the ongoing 2021 Olympics 2021, in a match that lasted just 23 minutes.

Fu Yu's constant attacking gameplay left the Indian paddler with very little breathing room. The Portuguese paddler left no scope for Sutirtha Mukherjee to re-evaluate her game in order to make a comeback throughout the match.

There wasn't a single moment in the short-lived match where Sutirtha was allowed to wrestle back any control,. After 23 minutes, the Indian table tennis star was crushed with a scoreline of 11-3, 11-3, 11-5, 11-5.

#3 Sutirtha was put on backfoot:

Sutirtha was put on the back foot from the word go. Fu Yu's power and speed didn't let the Indian paddler breathe. The Portuguese player's blistering footwork and movement left little wiggle room for Sutirtha Mukherjee.

Sutirtha's nervousness started to take over as the match progressed. After losing the first two sets, she started with a small lead in the third set but it was taken away from her by Fu Ya at lightning speed. After a short conversation with her coach, Sutirtha took a 2-point lead and many fans hoped she would stage a comeback in the match. But it was not to be as she lost the third set 11-5.

The fourth and final set went ahead with a 3-3, 4-4 tie but Fu Yu eventually outpowered her Indian counterpart. It didn't take Fu Yu long to register a massive lead and sweep away the game with a 11-5 scoreline.

#2 Sutirtha couldn't capitalise on her serves

Sutirtha could not capitalize on her serves. The 25-year-old earned only 10 points from her serves. In the first set she only scored two points from her serve. She followed it up with an even poorer outcome in the second serve, picking up just one point from her serve. In the two final sets, Sutirtha bagged four and three serve points respectively.

In total, Sutirtha lost 20 points from her serve. However, Fu Ya bagged 24 points from her service and lost only 6 points. This left the Indian paddler muffled throughout the match.

#1 Sutirtha's confidence after she went down in the first two

sets

Sutirtha, who went down in the first two sets, had been dealt a mental blow as well. Her body language dropped immediately. She lost her confidence and found it hard throughout the match to react and reflect on Fu Yu's smashes. Sutirtha looked clueless, and kept making many errors towards the end of the match.

A better display was expected from Sutirtha who seemed completely overwhelmed by Fu Yu's brilliance. This marks the end of her journey at the 2021 Olympics. The Indian paddler will look to perform better if she's able to qualify for the next edition of the Summer Games.