Manika Batra made history on Sunday as India’s women Table Tennis team defeated Singapore to win Gold at the 21st Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. The women’s team final saw Manika beat Tianwei Feng (3-2) which gave India a 1-0 lead and then she returned in the deciding tie of the game to beat Yihan Zhou (3-0). After the historic win India secured India’s seventh Gold in the competition and first in Table Tennis. Everyone turned to social media to congratulate the women paddlers. Everyone started speculating on what lies ahead for the 22-year-old.

Not to our surprise, Manika has her future moves ironed out and wishes to try her luck in B-town after her Table Tennis career. In her interview with Mid-Day, Manika said, “Alia Bhatt is my favourite actress, while I love Sidharth Malhotra and Salman Khan among the men.” The youngest of five siblings, Manika was into modelling during college days. “I used to get modelling offers and I did that too. But I felt that I needed to focus on the game more, so I left modelling. Of course, athletes go for endorsements these days, so in the future, I would want to resume that. It was fun,” she told Times of India last year.

Speaking about the game Manika said, “Even in my wildest dream I had not thought that I will bean an Olympic medallist and world number four. I knew that she was having problems with my pimpled rubber and I realise [sic] that but I did not use it as my strength all the time. I kept changing my game. I did not want to kept [sic] her settle so I changed my rubber after the second game.” Feeling elated by her win, Manika further added, “it was my first time playing against Feng, the moment I knew I won against the world number four, I felt on top of the world.”

Manika also revealed that she loves dancing and after she locks her TT kit for good, she would love to join Bollywood. Besides movies Batra loves shopping too. She said, “Yes, when I am in India, I love to go shopping with my mom,” she said with a broad smile.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 14, 2018 11:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).