As somewhat woman in Nagpur, Jennifer Varghese used to accompany her dad and mom to the Titans Table Tennis Academy close to her house to select up or drop her elder sister. The recreation quickly caught her fancy and she or he started frequenting the membership.
“The coach told me to practise, taught me to toss the ball. I played a few matches, then they were like, ‘Let her continue’. I continued and now I’m here,” mentioned Jennifer throughout the Sub-junior Nationals in Alappuzha not too long ago.
She has come a great distance.
With her Nagpur coach Ujwal Wani advising her to goal larger after she received the under-12 National title in 2019, Jennifer moved to Chennai in August 2021 and commenced coaching below R. Rajesh at his academy in Thiruvanmiyur.
The 14-year-old is now the World No. 5 in the under-15 class and not too long ago received the National singles title in that age bracket in Alappuzha.
But life was not straightforward for younger Jennifer after the Chennai transfer.
“She came with a lot of potential, she was already the under-12 national champion then. But after that her game began to dip because she was growing tall very fast,” mentioned Rajesh, a former worldwide.
Growing pains
“She grew five to six inches in about two years. When you shoot up so suddenly, it is not easy for anybody to adjust. It was a big headache for me and for her. Because when you see, the ball is suddenly at a different level.
“The table, the vision of the ball… everything changes. She couldn’t adjust. Technically, she had a lot of difficulty adjusting to her body and movements, and her confidence came down.
“It took us some time but she was always a very hard-working girl, very sincere and with a lot of potential. On top of that, she is someone who is willing to learn and willing to learn from her mistakes. That is very important for you to grow.”
Once she settled into her ‘new’ 5’7” body, Jennifer started producing outcomes.
Seizing the initiative: Attack is Jennifer’s forte, a power which helps her management rallies.
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Last yr, she received 5 worldwide titles, together with triumphs in World Table Tennis (WTT) Youth Contender sequence occasions in Morocco, Tunisia and the Czech Republic. She additionally performed the Youth Worlds in December in Tunisia, the place she entered the pre-quarterfinals, and completed the yr as the under-15 World No. 4.
“The Czech event [June 2022] was memorable because I beat the World No. 4 from Romania in the final. And in Morocco [August 2022], I beat my clubmate Suhana Saini in the under-17 final,” mentioned Jennifer.
Rajesh is proud of the method she is shaping up. “She has been performing well this year. After two years she’s slowly becoming the player I want her to be,” he mentioned.
Breaking obstacles
2018 Commonwealth Games champion Manika Batra’s progress has impressed many younger women; it has damaged enormous psychological obstacles too.
“She has inspired me a lot. Even if she fails or loses, she comes back stronger,” Jennifer mentioned about the present girls’s World No. 34. “That’s the best thing I like about her. She might be losing but she still plays cool. In the Asian Cup [in Bangkok last November], she won the bronze medal [the first Indian woman to do so, beating Japan’s World No. 6 Hina Hayata] after losing the semifinal [to Japan’s World No. 2 Mima Ito].”
Former eight-time nationwide champion Kamlesh Mehta, now the secretary of the Table Tennis Federation of India, feels the girls’s recreation is rising like by no means earlier than.
“Manika’s performances will give the belief to others that they can also do it. And that’s one of the major breakthroughs,” mentioned Kamlesh.
“There are now three to four women in the world’s top 100…it has never been like that. Many of them are young, that’s also a good thing. We have a very good crop of players who are doing well at every age category. That means that there is a flow, there is a line, so there is hope.”
Clearly, Jennifer is one among them. Haryana’s Suhana Saini, the under-17 World No. 7 who can also be Rajesh’s trainee in Chennai, additionally seems to be very promising. So does Maharashtra’s Riana Bhoota, the under-13 World No. 3.
“I have been training Suhana for a long time and as far as I’m concerned she and Jennifer will be the Saina [Nehwal] and [P.V.] Sindhu of Indian table tennis. The kind of potential they have, the kind of strokes they play, leave alone the success, the way they play, their presence at the table, they have a very good future,” mentioned Rajesh.
“And Jennifer, if she grows up the right way, will break all barriers and may be as good as Manika.”
The UTT impact
Rajesh additionally feels the Ultimate Table Tennis league, held in India just a few years in the past, performed an enormous position in taking the sport to new heights.
“Earlier, when our players were playing the Chinese or going for international meets, it was more for participation. They never really had any hope. That mindset has changed. I think the starting point of that mindset shift was the UTT,” he mentioned.
“We had the foreigners coming here and we were beating them. That was when the players started believing in themselves. Also the support from the Government, which made them play more tournaments, helped them to move up the rankings.”
The Mumbai-born Jennifer, who has her roots in Thiruvalla in Kerala, is obvious about her targets.
“First, it’s the rankings, then Commonwealth Games, then Olympics… I’m taking it step by step,” mentioned the ninth commonplace scholar.
Rajesh has a particular aim for her for this yr.
“My immediate target for her will be to try to get a medal at the Youth Worlds [Slovenia, Nov. 2023] which she missed out on last year. Also to maintain her Indian ranking,” he mentioned.
“After that, I want her to elevate to the next level, the under-19 and the women’s since she is showing promise. From next year we may have to forego under-17 and focus on under-19. She has to focus on her recovery also, she can’t be playing all the events all the time.”
Attack is Jennifer’s forte.
“Her strength is her attack, she is very good in the open game, in the rallies. She has some way to go to improve her service and reception. She is not tactically that strong but now she is learning to do that also,” mentioned her coach. “Ball to ball and rally to rally, she is superior to many.”
Rajesh feels that extra Manikas popping up will assist the sport immensely. “What Manika is achieving, we wish to see three to four people doing that at the age of 19 and 20,” he mentioned. “We don’t want a lone performance, the next batch should be four to five… that will help you push up the rankings together and faster.”
