The 13-year-old from Odisha has tasted astonishing success in the last few months, winning the Asian U-15 crown, and the U-15 and U-17 national titles; coaches believe that if Tanvi can make good on her promise, sky is the limit
At the entrance of the sprawling Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru, a giant billboard showcasing the best achievements of the Centre’s wards welcomes visitors. Some of India’s most noted athletes, including Lakshya Sen, have had their photos splashed across, lending an additional circle of light to their already luminous halo.
The latest to be given this prize of place is Tanvi Patri, the 13-year-old from Odisha who won the Asian U-15 girls’ singles title at Chengdu, China in August. A month later, at the sub-junior Nationals in Chennai, the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) trainee clinched the U-15 and U-17 singles titles. Such was her dominance that in China she did not lose a single game across five matches. In Chennai, she dropped one across 12.
To be fair, Tanvi is not the first Indian girl to triumph in Asia in recent times; Samiya Imad Farooqui and Tasnim Mir have both notched up victories, in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
But what’s astonishing about Tanvi’s success is her quality to not fall off the emotional cliff after winning one big tournament. It is this repeatability, coupled with the desire to constantly improve, that is perhaps telling her coaches and parents that she is really made for the big stage.
Tanvi has had a beginning in badminton unlike many others’. She picked up the game as a six year-old in China, where her father Rabinarayan Patri was working for an IT firm near Shanghai. A recreational player in his college days, Rabinarayan started playing the racquet sport in China and Tanvi just followed him. With English-medium schools hard to find, Tanvi played sport full-time while being home-schooled by her mother, Sailabala Panda, also an IT professional.
Strong foundation
“Till around eight-and-half years, she worked very hard,” Rabinarayan tells The Hindu. “We practised almost daily. Not only badminton, but even swimming and skating. The infrastructure there was outstanding and they were very welcoming. She won practically every badminton tournament she played, all the way up to the U-12 category.
“I then found a couple of coaches there and they were very good. She received the basic foundation from them. It was not a very big academy; more like a club. But those two coaches had enough time and they spent that with Tanvi”.
When they saw Tanvi developing quickly, her training was shifted to Shanghai where there were senior coaches. They drove Tanvi 60 odd kilometres daily to Shanghai, made her train for five to six hours and got her back home in the evening. This went on for well over two years and celebrated Chinese coach Jiang Yong Yi, who has tutored many Olympic and World medallists, was among Tanvi’s early trainers.
When the family had to return to India after Covid struck, it was this rigorous mentoring that held Tanvi in good stead. Jiang, in fact, has made multiple visits to the PPBA to conduct coaching clinics, for the legendary Prakash Padukone and Dronacharya Awardee and PPBA director Vimal Kumar hold Jiang in high regard. In 2022, Rabinarayan sent a few videos of Tanvi for enrollment at PPBA and she was quickly absorbed after a few trial sessions.
Fearless and error-free
“It was her ability to play without making mistakes that impressed us,” recollects Vimal. “This is what we observed in Lakshya, Saina [Nehwal] and others. Even at a very small age, even when they did not have the strength, they somehow managed to keep the shuttle inside the court. The second thing we liked was the temperament. One should not be scared about playing anybody. That thrill was there, to just play and compete”. To punch above her weight and compete to higher age categories without fear is something Tanvi has done splendidly so far. It is a trait that binds her to the very best in Indian badminton – Saina and P.V. Sindhu.
In fact on Sunday, Tanvi made the final in her maiden senior tournament, the CM Trophy India International Challenge in Raipur, before losing to over three close games to Rakshitha Ramraj, four years her senior. From the qualifying rounds, she won seven matches in all, including the straight-games semifinal victory over 20-year-old Isharani Baruah, one of the best Indian youngsters.
“Tanvi has that staying power,” opines Vimal. “Badminton is fast and intense. After you play a long rally, you are breathing to be normal for the next two or three points before gathering yourself.
“But one has to understand that when you are playing a tough rally, your opponent will also be gasping for breath. In that next point, can you do better without catching a break? If you have that ability at a young age, that’s a plus. That’s what has helped her across age groups”.
Umendra Singh Rana, a SAI coach who has been at PPBA for nearly a decade, says that Tanvi is a dream student when it comes to understanding and implementing strategies without letting competitive pressure get to her.
“She is quite a quick learner,” Rana observes. “Whatever input she’s getting from you [the coach], she tries it immediately in the match situation. She’s also very consistent and will not make many mistakes.
“There won’t be frequent changes in playing patterns which may lead to mistakes and the pressure being released. Whatever she does in practice, we can always expect her to do better in the competition. That is very rare,” he adds.
Tanvi’s fledgling teenage promise comes at a time when Indian women’s singles is looking for the next big star after Saina and Sindhu to keep the conveyor belt of success moving. At the Uber Cup earlier this year in Chengdu, there were a few green shoots when a young team, sans Sindhu, qualified for the last eight.
Tanvi’s rise is yet another green strand, and if not for her tender age and resultant ineligibility, she was even in line to be selected for the India U-19 team for the junior World Championships that were held in Nanchang (China) recently. But Vimal, ever the man to keep his students grounded, believes Tanvi’s attainments so far are at best small indicators of the seemingly endless possibilities, and that she has a mighty long way to go.
Growth opportunities
The trio of Rabinarayan, Vimal and Rana stresses that only with exposure to higher levels of competition and by playing more in countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia will Tanvi grow further.
“She needs to improve her strength,” Vimal points out. “To build on anything in badminton, you have to have good endurance and she’s reasonably good there. But against an opponent with a little deception, she struggles a bit. This is something you can improve with better strength.
“A good singles player should be good at the net, because only by approaching the net and playing a tight tumble does one create opportunities. She needs work there. For a small girl, the downward punch is quite good. But she can get better,” he adds.
Regardless, Vimal concedes that Tanvi is quite different to the scores of girls he has coached. “Players like her [Tanvi] just come,” he says with a smile. “The likes of Sainas, Sindhus… they just come. How you can help them realise their potential is the key. “There are a lot of different off -court factors, but if Tanvi can survive all that, she can be really really good. I don’t know whether she will be an Olympic medallist; that is a long way to go. But the potential is there to become a very good international player”.