Tanvi Patri training at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
A sport is healthy if it can constantly replenish itself. Women’s singles badminton in India has long been on the lookout for newer champions, for it needs more than just Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu.
While there have been fleeting successes, a solid green shoot seems to have emerged in young Tanvi Patri, the 13-year-old who won the Asian U-15 title in Chengdu, China, in August.
A fortnight ago, at the sub-junior Nationals in Chennai, the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) trainee backed up the Asian triumph by securing both the U-15 and U-17 titles. In China, she didn’t lose a game across five matches. In Chennai, she lost one across 12.
U. Vimal Kumar, Dronacharya Awardee and director at PPBA, says such consistency at a tender age is remarkable. “Indians have won the Asian title before,” Vimal tells The Hindu, alluding to Samiya Imad Farooqui’s and Tasnim Mir’s victories in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
Tanvi Patri training at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit:
SUDHAKARA JAIN
“But Tanvi is winning other tournaments also, like Nationals, ranking tournaments, selection trials. In fact, she would have got selected to play for U-19 Indian team. But the Badminton Association of India (BAI) did not permit. Only when you’re 14 can you play the junior world championships. But that is a great sign of her improvement.”
Tanvi took to badminton as a six-year-old near Shanghai, China where her father Rabinarayan Patri was working for an IT firm. She received her early training from a group that included celebrated Chinese coach Jiang Yong Yi, who has tutored many Olympic and World medallists.
But during the Covid pandemic, Rabinarayan and his wife Sailabala Panda — who works for another IT firm — returned to India, and in 2022 Tanvi was enrolled at PPBA.
Tanvi Patri training at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit:
SUDHAKARA JAIN
“It was her ability to play without making mistakes that impressed us,” says Vimal. “This is what we have observed in Lakshya [Sen], Saina at a very small age itself. They might not have the strength yet, but they somehow can keep the shuttle inside. Second thing I liked was the temperament… to not be scared about playing anybody.”
Tanvi is in awe of double Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen’s courtcraft. “I like his smashes and dribbles,” she says. For now, it is the great Dane’s serial winning ability and sportsmanship that she has sought to imbibe first.
“Tanvi is a match player. Whatever she does here in practice, we can expect her to do better in the competition,” says Umendra Singh Rana, a SAI coach who has been at PPBA for nearly a decade. “She is more consistent in the tournaments. That is the sign of a champion player.”
Published – November 06, 2024 07:48 pm IST
