By Rahul Baghel
Nikhil Saini is 19 years old and the current youngest champion in under-21 boys category. Belonging to Patiala (Punjab), Nikhil is now the best class level champion in making India proud of his achievements. He started table tennis in 2010. He has 4 national medals, won Gold medal in All India University Games and recently he won Gold Medal in Khelo India University Games.
Nikhil’s father, Vijay Kumar Saini, works for the Municipal Corporation and his mother, Rajni Saini, homemaker, can proudly say that their son is the current champion in Table Tennis under-21 category. He trains at Elite Table Tennis Academy in Patiala under coach Varinder Kumar Gulati.
Gyann Loaded team interacted with Nikhil to have an insight in his life and this is how it went.
How has your game changed over the years?
There has been a lot of change. The sport of table tennis itself has had a lot of change. There were faster bats earlier and the balls were faster. Earlier there used to be only forehand players. Now you need to play both forehand and backhand. I have to be updated with the new techniques and keep my game in line with the new age. I think,especially, between 2010 to 2012, I had a big transition problem to get updated with the new system.
Do you change your mental strategies according to a specific player?
Yes very much. Because everybody is different. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. So I cannot have the same strategy. I might have some strategies which are the same but those will be my strategies. What I want to do with my game is that I need to play my forehand. I need to go hard on my forehand, which is my game. This goes on with everybody else. But it will change according to player on how I build up to get to that forehand or where exactly do I want to place the ball. So those kind of things are always variable.
Do you have memories of anything of that sort happening?
In the National Championship final, I played Vikrant Kumar. Normally his backhand is stronger than mine, that is where he takes me down. But I started to challenge him with my backhand. He didn’t know where to play and I won the match. By the time he could realize what he could do more, I was just giving more and more pressure. Even though the backhand wasn’t my strongest point, I still believed that this was the only way I could beat him because the other way around, he would beat me. His probability of beating me was more. So this was my only chance and that was what I took.
What goes through your mind when you have just lost a point?
It depends. There are so many emotions, there are so many thoughts that go through your mind during a match. It depends on when you have lost the point. What happened before. What happened after. But the best thing would be if you are in the zone. No thoughts. You lose a point, you win a point, you are there playing the next point. I try not to be negative, at least from my body language so that the opponent doesn’t get too easily confident.
How much of the advantage your height gives you?
It’s both ways. Because being tall near the table, I need to bend a lot. And I feel cramped. Claustrophobic. So I need to always take a distance. I need to take space, but at the same time, the ball doesn’t go out of my reach as I am tall and the table is small. So it’s both of an advantage and disadvantage.
When the coach gives you instructions, how much of the information do you go on to implement?
You need to try to do it 100 percent if you trust the coach. It’s always better to have someone in that corner who you trust than someone you don’t and then you play along.
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