Meet Ayhika Mukherjee: Indian Paddler Hands First Defeat To World No 1

The crowd roared boisterously as Ayhika Mukherjee crushed records, beating World No. 1 table tennis player Sun Yingsha at the ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championship 2024 in Busan, South Korea. This was the first time the Chinese player had to embrace a defeat in all 26 singles matches in international team tournaments. Mukherjee's jaw-dropping victory and Sreeja Akula A game against World No. 2 Wang Yidi scripted history for India despite the team's 3-2 loss at the end of the tournament. 

Perfect record COLLAPSED 🤯



Ayhika Mukherjee hands Sun Yingsha her first defeat EVER at a teams event at #ITTFWorlds2024 😱



Can Team India take down the defending champions? Tune in LIVE at https://t.co/WzpUvKTnKl to find out 📺 #Busan2024 #TableTennis #PingPong pic.twitter.com/tGv0PN6mq3

— World Table Tennis (@WTTGlobal) February 16, 2024

Mukherjee, World No. 155, showed a stellar performance on February 16, etching her name in history. She proved that a rank can also be just a number in comparison to hard work and grit to win. "I really feel great beating Sun Yingsha. Today was my day... I was confident, and I just told myself that I should enjoy the match," Mukherjee told the World Table Tennis. 

Who Is Ayhika Mukherjee?

Ayhita Mukherjee was born on June 10, 1997, in Naihati, West Bengal. She started her table tennis career with the RP-SG Mavericks Kolkata team and won all the state-ranking tournaments in 2008. She has displayed a flawless determination to succeed at the sport since the very beginning. 

She was the winner at the Senior National Championships in 2018 in the team event and a semi-finalist in the singles category. Ayhika Mukherjee will be a player to watch out for this season. In 2019, she clinched the silver medal at the Belgium Open in the Under-21 category. That same year, she also won gold at the South Asian Games in Kathmandu in the team category, as well as silver each in the singles, mixed-doubles, and doubles categories.

Defeating Sun Yingsha at the 2024 Busan Championships was not the only time when Mukherjee made history. In 2023, the Ayhika-Sutirtha Mukherjee duo grabbed India's first gold medal in table tennis doubles at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. In the 2022 Asian Games, Ayhika Mukherjee won India a bronze medal. She was honoured with the Arjuna Award by President Droupadi Murmu in 2024.