I lack self-belief at the moment: Divya

A decade ago Divya Desphande promised much as a teenager in Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in Pune. She won a silver partnering Pooja Sahastrabuddhe. Pooja continues to be part of the Indian team which won gold, beating Singapore in Gold Coast, Australia, at the Commonwealth Games in April. Manika Batra, Mouma Das, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Madhurika Patkar were the other members of the team.

But like her long time doubles partner Pooja, Divya hasn’t been able to be consistent part of the Indian team.

She won her first sub junior national title in 2003 and followed it with doubles bronze in Dubai next year to taste International success. After CYG 2008 success, she continued to rise in the ranks at the senior level as well but never really full filled her promise at the International circuit. She however remained part of Indian team and maintained good national ranking until early 2016 when she suffered a dip in form to drop in national rakings to 11 from top four.

“I had a dip in form and also luck was not working for me. It was not that I was not working hard but my performances were not that satisfactory. I was not peaking at right time. Last year though was good for me. I played well in 2-3 tournaments and moved up to six in rankings from 11,” she said.

The 28-year-old who is participating in the Ultimate Table Tennis  (UTT) league for the first time cited example of Thursday night’s match in Delhi where she had her moments but couldn’t grab them. While representing Empowerji Challengers she almost pulled off a big upset against Lily Zhang of Maharashtra United, an opponent ranked 361 places above her before Zhang prevailed 11-10, 11-10 on golden points.

“When performance should actually peak up, it doesn’t, that’s where I get stuck. If I had the self-belief I would have won it. At the point I get nervous, I got nervous, I needed extra boost from myself obviously it could have helped, I become sane at times,” she observed.

Divya who currently works with ONGC shifted her base to Mumbai couple of years ago from Pune and has been working with coach Vaibhav Pawar in Borivali since a year and a half. But she hasn’t been able to translate her hard work into success yet. She knows with players like Manika, Pooja and Mouma doing well at International level her comeback trial isn’t easy.

“Hard work is key to success, I have never compromised on that. I just feel the mental part is really important, where usually I fluctuate a lot, because of that my performance goes haywire. I am working more on mental aspect than technical things,” she said.

The talented paddler took time to adjust to tough routine in Mumbai conditions but now she has got accustomed to the city.

“I spent growing up years in Pune which was helpful at that time. Later on my event changed and I needed more practice and good partners. There were quality players in Pune but very less in number and they were mainly into academics. In Mumbai I get to play a lot compared to Pune where I played for maximum 3-4 hours. I wasn’t used to playing a lot and it took time to get accustomed to weather here which is poles apart from Pune. But now I am doing well.  I am training for 4-5 hours in the morning including fitness schedule and also training in evenings at the Academy in Borivali,” she said.

She missed the first season of UTT but she was part of the Mumbai Super League last year. She wants to use this seasons UTT as launch pad to get back in national reckoning.

“I missed last season of UTT but fortunately played in MSL which had same format as UTT. I was quite prepared for this format but still nervous in first match but it wasn’t a bad start. Nerves calmed down from second match. I am getting to learn lot of new things in this tournament under (former India) coach Peter Engel (of Germany). I am looking forward to focus on those aspects of the game as well,” she said.