Star table tennis player Manika Batra believes having a personal coach is a basic requirement for an athlete playing individual sport and if she had court-side access to hers in Tokyo Olympics, she would have done better. “Chief coach is fine for team events but we also have singles event where certainly one needs his/her coach as that person knows more about the training and game of his player,” said the World No. 56.

Her comments come after she was show-caused by TTFI for refusing national coach Somyadeep Roy’s help during her singles matches in Tokyo after her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape was denied field of play access due to a limit on accredited personnel by the Games organisers.