Diya Chitale’s parents often went on vacations when she was a little girl. And almost always the place where they stayed had a table tennis table and her family and friends joined in the fun.
That’s how Diya got hooked to the ping-pong game. She soon started playing at the Khar Gymkhana club in Mumbai.
Turning point
“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,” said Diya in a chat with The Hindu during the recent National Games in Dehradun.
“That was when my hobby turned into a passion. And then, there was no looking back.”
Her parents, and almost all her close relatives, have a strong academic background. Her father is a maths professor and trains 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,” said 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 current National champion in women’s singles. After losing the first two games of the title match in Surat recently, the Mumbai girl bounced back and stunned Olympian Sreeja Akula.
Formidable opponent: Diya has a track record of beating higher-ranked players. At the UTT, she defeated Manika Batra, Ayhika Mukherjee and Yashaswini Ghorpade. | Photo credit: M. Vedhan
“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,” said 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 process, explained 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 said.
“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 currently the World No. 110 while Sreeja is on the 29th rung in the global rankings, just a step below Manika Batra.
Making a splash
Four months earlier, Diya, playing for Dabang Delhi, had upset Manika, representing PBG Bengaluru Smashers, 3-0 in the Ultimate Table Tennis league in Chennai.
She was a sort of giant-killer at the UTT, pulling off surprise wins over Ayhika Mukherjee and Yashaswini Ghorpade, both listed higher than her in the world rankings. Shortly after that, Diya was in the Indian team that jolted Paris Olympics bronze medallist South Korea and won its first-ever bronze in the women’s team event of the Asian Championships in Kazakhstan.
Around this time last year, the Indian women had created a sensation when World No. 155 Ayhika stunned China’s World No. 1 Sun Yingsha while Sreeja surprised the then World No. 2 Wang Yidi at the World Team Championships in Busan. India went on to lose to China 2-3 in that group match, but it must have raised the confidence of female paddlers across the country.
That could well go down as a defining moment in Indian women’s table tennis, especially if it can inspire a revolution such as the one witnessed in badminton when stars like Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu began beating Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese players and went on to win Olympic medals.
Role models: Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu changed the way people look at badminton in India, says Diya. She believes the paddlers can bring about a similar transformation. | Photo credit: PTI
Does Diya see a possibility of that happening 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,” said Diya, who was a member of the Indian team at the last 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 also sounded a warning.
The work never 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,” said Diya, whose next target is to crack into the world’s top 75, with medals at the World Championships and Olympics being the long-term goals.
What makes the Chinese players so special, 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,” said Diya.
“And I think from the start, they have very sound technique, they have very good basics.”
A bright student who scored 93% in her class 10 boards, it’s clear Diya has been quietly taking notes on some of the world’s top players, biding her time and waiting for India’s big day.
Published – February 21, 2025 11:40 pm IST