MUMBAI: That 12-year-old city girl Divyanshi Bhowmick loves to punch above her weight was evident when she won the women’s singles title at the Mumbai Suburban District Table Tennis Championship last month apart from winning the Under-19, U-17 and U-15 girls titles.
So, winning the historic silver medal for the country in U-15 doubles event with her partner Jennifer Varghese at the ITTF World Youth Table Tennis Championship in Nova Gorcia in Slovenia was a natural progression.
“It was my first final at that level and that too in above my category (U-13) and we played and won against some formidable opponents including the Chinese which was awesome. I am happy that we managed to win India’s first ever silver medal at the World Youth Championships,” said the Kandivli resident.
“The win has given huge boost to my confidence,” added the standard VIII student of the Ryan International School.
It has been an amazing year for Divyanshi who has won seven titles in the WTT Youth Contender events held in France, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Jordan and Bangkok between April and September.
“She has long pimple on her backhand just like Manika Batra, so she can put variation from her backhand side. She also does a lot of pace variation in her game which makes her a formidable player,” says her coach Aakash Kasar who runs Ace Table Tennis Academy in Thane where she practises regularly.
“The main reason why Divyanshi is developing into a good player is that she has a huge support from her family as all her family members play table tennis. Her mother brings her daily from their Kandivli home to Thane at my academy, travelling for about three hours daily. Then she again practises at home in the evening,” said Kasar.
So, doesn’t practising for nearly seven to eight hours daily at this age and with such a slim frame make Divyanshi tired?
“She is so determined to improve her game that I don’t have to nudge her. She is always recharged,” says her mother Preeti, who doubles as her travelling coach.
In fact, Divyanshi, who started playing table tennis in 2019, says it was the Covid period which helped her greatly in improving her game.
“I could play the whole day with my dad and elder sister during those times and it really helped me in learning quickly,” she said.
Divyanshi’s favourite player is Manika Batra.
“I like her backhand twiddle which I would love to add in my game.”
