Mumbai teen paddler Diya plots steady rise
MUMBAI: Diya Chitale’s first tryst with table tennis came while vacationing in a resort. She would observe her family members play and, struggling to even see the top of the table, elevate her tiny feet to try and hit the ball herself. The Mumbai girl has kept up with her rise since, not only in terms of the centimetres on her height but also skills on the table.
Last month, Chitale clinched the under-19 girls’ singles title at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Youth Contender Lima in Peru, handing the 19-year-old her first WTT youth crown. The international triumph reaffirmed the junior world No. 11’s status as one of the most promising youngsters in Indian table tennis, a tag she has carried around in the national junior circuit for a while and has also recently translated into the senior stage.
In January, the teen won the UTT National Ranking Championships for the central zone in Indore, beating Sreeja Akula— the 2022 national women’s singles champion—in the semi-finals en route to her maiden senior title. In the nationals held last month in Shillong, Chitale was given the most promising junior award. She has been named as the standby in Indian women’s team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“Winning my first WTT U-19 title felt really great,” Diya said. “I started playing seniors in India very recently and won my first title in Indore. As I’m playing more, I am constantly improving. Of course, there’s a long, long way to go. Step by step.”
Sachin Shetty, her long-time coach, was quick to spot a young Diya’s talent in Khar Gymkhana and also realise that her training setup needed a different touch. And so, in 2015, Diya began training with Peter Engel, India’s former national foreign coach, in Germany. “That was a major turning point for Diya,” Parag Chitale, her father, said. “Sachin Shetty asked us a very interesting question when we started. He said, ‘What is your objective—do you want her to represent India at the international level or want her to win medals?’ That’s when we realised these are two different things.”
The same year, Diya was picked up by Olympic Gold Quest under their junior athlete scholarship program, earmarked as a talent to nurture. Every year thereon, Diya spends about 3-4 months in Germany training with Engel. “Technically, Peter Engel is an amazing coach and I’ve been working a lot on the finer aspects of the game with him,” Diya said.
The teen has a battery of experts working behind the scenes with her, including a mental conditioning coach, diet and nutrition expert and physical fitness trainer. When it comes to fitness and diet, though, Diya needs little external impetus. A self-obsessed “fitness freak”, Diya makes it a point to stick to her diet chart even when she is, at times, on her own in Germany. “To be that organized on these aspects is commendable at her age,” Shetty said.
Diya describes herself as “very goal-driven” from a young age. The teen understands the slow grind of the “step by step” process, but has already placed the bar quite high. “I want to win medals at the Olympics and the world championships,” she said.