Fresh from her recent exploits on court at the Rs 13 lakh AITA Ranking Anirudh Desai JVPG Tennis Tournament which concluded in Mumbai on January 31 wherein she reached the finals of all three categories she participated in, and winning two of them, Goa's tennis ace Natasha Palha says her immediate priority is to excel at the South Asian Games to be held from February 7-12 in Guwahati
BASIL SYLVESTER PINTO
Panaji
Fresh from her recent exploits on court at the Rs 13 lakh AITA Ranking Anirudh Desai JVPG Tennis Tournament which concluded in Mumbai on January 31 wherein she reached the finals of all three categories she participated in, and winning two of them, a day hence on her short visit to the State, Natasha Palha, the 'Golden Girl' of Goan Tennis spoke exclusively to The Goan Everyday at her Agassaim residence.
Reflecting on her experience at the recently concluded tourney, the tennis sensation revealed that it went as per expectations. She wanted to retain her singles title which she did against the unseeded Mumbai lass, Rashmi Teltumbde with a challenging 7-6(4), 6-2 win thereby justifying her top billing and securing 60 AITA points in the process.
What more, she made a double, partnering Anvit Bendre (Mah) in the mixed doubles and living upto their seeding as no. 1 to defeat the second-seeded pair of Mohit Mayur (TN) and Rashmi Teltumbde (Mah) in a topsy-turvy duel at 2-6, 6-1, 10-4.
Talking of the experience in playing the mixed doubles, she disclosed that it was an uncommon event and incidentally, the only Open tournament in the category (in India) wherein they (Anvit and she) just went out there to have fun, play their best and in their run to the title, put it across some good pairs. Unfortunately, in doubles, top-seeded with Sharmada Balu (Karnataka) she had to concede the finals match without taking to court as her partner had an ankle injury.
On her immediate priority, she reveals it is at the South Asian Games to be held shortly in Guwahati wherein Tennis would feature from February 7-12. On the events she would be participating, she replied to state that the featuring Indian team would be decided on the spot. "Who would play the singles and doubles will be decided by our coach Shalini Thakur (Delhi), herself, a former India player," disclosed Palha.
Currently ranked now 4 among women on the National Circuit, she was no. 2 in the country for a couple of months until August 2015 when injury forced her to keep low. On the WTA Circuit, while she is ranked 520 in singles, in doubles she is better placed at 461.
With her return to competitive tennis in November 2015, she took part in ITF Pro Circuit events in Lucknow, Raipur and Gulbarga (2), all four being 10,000 dollar ITF tourneys. While in Raipur and in one of the Gulbarga tourneys, she lost in the singles finals, in Lucknow, she bowed out in the first round in singles, while in the doubles, she reached the semis. In the other tourney at Gulbarga, she lost in the quarters in singles and in doubles went out in the semis.
Feeling her way back to top flight tennis, the following month saw her participate in two more tourneys, in Navi Mumbai and Pune wherein better quality tennis was on view as she played in the higher category 25,000 dollar ITF tourneys. She had even qualified in the main event in one of them, but crashed out in the first round in the main draw.
Her initiation to the racquet sport, makes for an interesting anecdote. She tells this writer, she started playing a fair bit of tennis at a tender seven, with her older sister, Vanessa. It was an aunt that gifted her a racquet and with which she used to hit balls on the wall with Vanessa, two years older to her, in their living room at home. "When we first started playing, our parents (Brian and Dr Ophelia) saw our interest to tennis and from what they saw they helped us to learn basic techniques of playing the sport," she reminisces. From pounding the living room wall for two years, their father, Brian decided to build a cemented tennis court in their spacious backyard. And this is where Natasha honed her raw talent with her sister until she turned 15. While the court may be unused since and dilapidated to a certain extent, you could feel a surge hit you when you remember the then prodigy's words earlier in the interview when she said that it was good enough to hit balls from one side of the net to another.
Her first coach is the highly respected Valentino D'Silva (ITF Level 1 Coach) who mentored her when she was starting out in all seriousness play tennis aged 9 at Raj Bhavan, Dona Paula. From the age of 11, on the competitive tennis circuit, she hit out on court in practice with other players at academies where tourneys were to be shortly held. But since April 2012, she has her base in Pune at Pune Youth Club (PYC) Gymkhana where she practices with India No. 1 Ankita Raina, under the tutelage of Tennis Coach, Hemant Bendre.
Her competitiveness to sport was evident when she was studying in Sharada Mandir School, Miramar, Panjim. "I was always good in sports and excelled in athletic events like long jump and running," she nostalgically recalled. Her first tennis tournament was played in Mumbai in 2004 when she was 10 1/2 years old. She may have not known what organizing a tennis tourney was all about but she remembers losing in the first round of the U-14 Girls event. She then went on to play another two age category tourneys, and performing credibly well in one U-12 tourney. This was when realization dawned upon her that she was pretty good at the game. She continued to enjoy competing and always felt good with the whole competitive atmosphere which keeps her going to this day.
The precocious talent reached her first finals in competitive tennis in 2005 in an U-12 tourney held in Mumbai. She felt her performance was really good as she beat a lot of highly-ranked Maharashtra girls in her age-group who were no. 2, 3 and 4 in the State at that level. A year later, she won her first title at Priyadarshini Park, Mumbai at the U-14 Girls by beating Prathana Thombare (ranked no. 2 in the category in Maharashtra).
By 2007, she began to play a lot of the Asian Ranking tourneys. She went on to earn the distinction of getting the numero uno ranking in Asia at the U-14 age category by virtue of playing six tourneys at the level and doing exceedingly well. In these six Asian Ranking tourneys, she made the finals in all, and won five of them. While she won two tourneys in Bahrain, she won one apiece in Syria, Jordan and Pune. It was in the same year, she had got the no. 1 raking in U-14 Girls at the National level. Following which, she secured high rankings in the country in U-16 Girls (no.2), U-18 Girls (no.4) and Women's (no.2).
Talking about her better performances, the champion Goan tennis player reveals that she has made it to five finals on the ITF Pro Circuit in Women's singles (two in Delhi, one each in Chennai, Gulbarga and Raipur) and has won three 10,000 dollar ITF tourneys (two in India, one in Egypt) of the ten she has reached in doubles).
In May 2015, at the 25,000 dollar ITF tourney in Uzbekistan, she reached the doubles finals partnering the local lass, Vlada Ekshibarova. She also lists reaching the semis in singles in 10,000 dollar ITF tourneys in Bangkok and Egypt as memorable.
"There have been a lot of good matches,"she continues. She recalls the one against a 120-ranked Chinese Taipei girl, Kai-Chen Chang whom she beat in Women's Singles in Thailand March-end last. In the last two years, she claims to have defeated seven higher ranked players (ranked between 200-400 on the WTA Tour).
On a game she would like to forget, she has a smart reply. "Honestly, none, as it teaches you something. (a bad game) It helps me to improve. I would not want to take bad matches to heart. There was this U-16 match in which I was serving at match point yet lost the match and ever since, at every match point I go for it to finish it off," she stated.
The Dempo Goodwill Ambassador since 2008, had her first competitive international exposure in 2006 when she got the Asian U-14 Girls no. 1 ranking and thereby was selected to represent Asia by playing tennis tourneys in France, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands. After that she played for the Indian team at the U-14 level in China. She also played in the Asia Open Juniors in 2010 where she lost in the second qualifying round. From whereon, there was no looking back and she globe-trots on the ITF Pro Circuit.
The 22-year-old is pursuing her Third Year in Arts from Dhempe College, Miramar, and she admits it has not affected her academics whatsoever. Though tennis is her top priority, she says she loves studying, but feels bad about missing out on going to college. In her 12th (Arts), she reveals that she began studying only a couple of months before her Board examinations and she secured an amazing 78 per cent.
Ask her a question, and she has no clue on the number of titles and medals she has won and the number of awards and certifications she has received which are proudly showcased in two glass cabinets and around on tables and up on the walls in the living room at her Agassaim residence
To budding sportspersons, the highly talented and competitive tennis player has this to say: "The most important thing is to have passion for playing and never care about losing. The moment you step on the field (or court), you go out there to give your best."
Post the South Asian Games, she would be play another 25,000 dollar ITF tourney, before heading to Australia to play some more this February and next month as well.
Natasha Palha, looks forward to doing well in the ITF Pro Circuit, wants to get her singles ranking up to 350 on the WTA Tour to ensure participation in bigger tourneys and targets playing 75,000 dollar ITF tourneys next.
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QUOTE
"The most important thing is to have passion for playing and never care about losing. The moment you step on the field, you go out there to give your best."
