Giant-killer Diya Chitale believes India’s table tennis moment will arrive — but it can’t be forced

Diya Chitale’s dad and mom typically went on holidays when she was somewhat lady. And virtually all the time the place the place they stayed had a table tennis table and her household and associates joined within the enjoyable.

That’s how Diya bought hooked to the ping-pong recreation. She quickly began enjoying on the Khar Gymkhana membership in Mumbai.

Turning level

“I was around eight then and it began as a hobby. I think the turning point came in 2014 when I won the under-12 singles silver at the National Championships and that must have been the moment when I wanted to take the sport seriously,” mentioned Diya in a chat with The Hindu throughout the latest National Games in Dehradun.

“That was when my hobby turned into a passion. And then, there was no looking back.”

Her dad and mom, and virtually all her shut kinfolk, have a powerful tutorial background. Her father is a maths professor and trains college students for CAT and GRE.

“Nobody [in our family] is into any kind of sports professionally, I’m the only one, but I think that I’m into it because my family supported me the most, there was never a discussion on whether I should focus just on studies or take up my sport professionally,” mentioned the 21-year-old. 

“It was always my decision and they always stood by me. No matter what decision I would make, they were always there for me.”

That paid off. Diya is the present National champion in ladies’s singles. After shedding the primary two video games of the title match in Surat lately, the Mumbai lady bounced again and surprised Olympian Sreeja Akula.

“Sreeja is an amazing player, honestly it was a very good match and a very close match. I think both of us were playing our best and, of course, we both wanted to win very badly…it was 3-3 and 9-all and I knew I would not get any easy points against her, she always fights for it,” mentioned Diya.

“I’m really happy that at the crucial situation, I was able to keep my calm and still play my aggressive game. And in the end, I was able to convert that match in my favour.”

Winning the National title was not a one-day course of, defined Diya, who represents the Reserve Bank of India.

“It’s like months and years going into building towards that, but it’s a different kind of confidence when you are winning matches. I knew I was playing well for quite some time, but somewhere, in those crucial matches, I was losing, so I really learned to stay in the game for each and every point and that was something I was able to execute throughout,” she mentioned.

“I think I was really confident throughout the Nationals and was able to execute everything my coach Sachin Shetty and I had worked out.”

Incidentally, Diya is at present the World No. 110 whereas Sreeja is on the twenty ninth rung within the international rankings, only a step beneath Manika Batra.

Making a splash

Four months earlier, Diya, enjoying for Dabang Delhi, had upset Manika, representing PBG Bengaluru Smashers, 3-0 within the Ultimate Table Tennis league in Chennai.

She was a type of giant-killer on the UTT, pulling off shock wins over Ayhika Mukherjee and Yashaswini Ghorpade, each listed greater than her on this planet rankings. Shortly after that, Diya was within the Indian staff that jolted Paris Olympics bronze medallist South Korea and gained its first-ever bronze within the ladies’s staff occasion of the Asian Championships in Kazakhstan.

Around this time final yr, the Indian ladies had created a sensation when World No. 155 Ayhika surprised China’s World No. 1 Sun Yingsha whereas Sreeja stunned the then World No. 2 Wang Yidi on the World Team Championships in Busan. India went on to lose to China 2-3 in that group match, but it will need to have raised the boldness of feminine paddlers throughout the nation.

That may nicely go down as a defining moment in Indian ladies’s table tennis, particularly if it can encourage a revolution such because the one witnessed in badminton when stars like Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu started beating Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese gamers and went on to win Olympic medals.

Role fashions: Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu modified the way in which individuals have a look at badminton in India, says Diya. She believes the paddlers can carry a couple of comparable transformation. | Photo credit score: PTI

Does Diya see a risk of that occuring in table tennis?

“Saina and Sindhu have really changed the way people look at badminton in India. They broke the myth that foreigners are better than us and I think it’s definitely possible in table tennis,” mentioned Diya, who was a member of the Indian staff on the final Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

“There has been a huge, huge rise ever since the 2018 Commonwealth Games [where Manika became the first Indian woman to win the singles gold] and I think many players now are doing so well. Sharath, Sathiyan, Manika, Sreeja, they are all doing really very well, so I think we are there, it’s just more of the mental shift we need that we can also beat them and we will get there soon.”

But she additionally sounded a warning.

The work by no means ceases

“Everyone is waiting for that day but I think the more you put pressure on it, thinking I hope it comes now, I hope it comes now, the further it goes away. So you never know when that big break is coming, but I just believe that if you keep working hard, for sure that day will come,” mentioned Diya, whose subsequent goal is to crack into the world’s prime 75, with medals on the World Championships and Olympics being the long-term targets.

What makes the Chinese gamers so particular, what separates them from the Indians?

“When I watch them, I think the one thing they have is the same quality, the same intensity from the first point till the end and their basics are really very good. When they start, they are two or three and we start when we are seven, eight. So, they already have a five-year advantage,” mentioned Diya.

“And I think from the start, they have very sound technique, they have very good basics.”

A brilliant scholar who scored 93% in her class 10 boards, it’s clear Diya has been quietly taking notes on a few of the world’s prime gamers, biding her time and ready for India’s huge day.