Little-known Akula Sreeja, 24, who charmed her way to glory at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, was in tears one night when she lost to Singapore’s Tianwei Feng, an Olympic medallist, in the closely-contested singles semi-finals. But the next night, the Hyderabad paddler was on Cloud Nine, having made history by winning India’s first ever mixed doubles table tennis gold alongside her idol and Sharath Kamal, whom she refers to as Anna (big brother in Telugu). The Indian pair defeated Malaysians Javen Choong and Karen Lyne 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6 in the final.

‘Grateful to Sharath Anna’

“Winning a gold in my maiden CWG appearance is huge. I’m grateful to Sharath Anna for guiding me throughout. To be honest, we went into the mixed doubles competition without enough practice sessions because of the tight schedule. The last time I played with Sharath Anna was way back in 2019,” a delighted Sreeja told mid-day.