Two-time national champion and one of the most promising Indian paddlers, Sreeja Akula, had left for the Paris Olympics with a lot of determination. Like every other athlete, and especially a first-timer at the Games, the excitement and the aspirations were very high for the 26-year-old from Hyderabad. Although the campaign wasn’t great, Sreeja ensured that she gave her best in every game and played every match as if it were her last. Sreeja made a Round of 16 exit in the women’s singles event after losing to top seed Sun Yingsha, while the women’s team lost in the quarterfinals to Germany. View this post on Instagram A post shared by World Table Tennis (@wtt) Sreeja, will next be seen in action at the WTT Star Contender Chennai. Ahead of the tournament, News18 caught up with the star paddler for an exclusive chat 2024 was a great year for you in terms of overall achievements. How would you sum it up? 2024 was an amazing year for me. I had a couple of ups and downs before last year, but for me, the key was just to stay patient and believe in myself and focus on the process. It was not something I did especially in 202,4, but it was the hard work my coach and I have been putting in for the last 15 odd years, so I think it showed up at the right time before the Olympics. Tell us about your Paris Olympics experience. Since childhood I always wanted to compete at the Olympics, represent India and play with the top athletes in the world, so I was very excited to go there and play. I just had one thing in my mind: that I should not let my country down, I should just give my best. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Olympic Khel (@olympickhel) No result is ultimately in my control but I should just give my best and I just played as if that’s going to be the last, every match is going to be the last match of my career, so that’s how I went into each match I played and it was an amazing tournament for me. In singles with Sun Yingsha, I think it could have been better. I was leading in the first two sets, but it was a very good learning experience for me. I had very good learnings from that match, and yeah, very good, great tournament. You won a mixed doubles gold at Birmingham CWG, but TT has been removed from the roster for 2026. As an athlete, how do you see this decision? It is very disappointing that TT has been removed, but okay, it’s not in our control, not in my control, so I just have to move forward. How is your preparation for the WTT Contender? There is a chance of you facing Miyu Nagasaki in the early rounds. I just want to go match by match and not think or expect too much from myself because that will add more pressure. So I just want to go match by match and enjoy every match I play, and the preparation has been going quite well. Can you talk about your partnerships with Swastika Ghosh and G Sathiyan? Both of them must be very different, given the amount of experience. With Swastika, this is going to be my first tournament, so let’s see how it goes. So, we are just trying as a new pair, but with Sathiyan anna also, it’s going to be something new because this is the second tournament we are going to pair up. He is very experienced, and I hope I will get to learn many things from him. We (Sathiyan and Sreeja) also plan to play for the long term, so we are trying out. Do you see the WTT tournaments adding to the popularity of table tennis? WTT is something which is making table tennis very popular in the world and in India too and conducting it in Chennai for the first time is going to help Indian table tennis grow much faster and it’s not only going to help the ones who are playing but also the ones who come to watch the top athletes play in life, so it’s going to inspire many of them.