Can teen sensation Jennifer Varghese join Manika Batra at the head table?

As a little girl in Nagpur, Jennifer Varghese used to accompany her parents to the Titans Table Tennis Academy near her home to pick up or drop her elder sister. The game soon caught her fancy and she began frequenting the club.

“The coach told me to practise, taught me to toss the ball. I played a few matches, then they were like, ‘Let her continue’. I continued and now I’m here,” said Jennifer during the Sub-junior Nationals in Alappuzha recently.

She has come a long way.

With her Nagpur coach Ujwal Wani advising her to aim higher after she won the under-12 National title in 2019, Jennifer moved to Chennai in August 2021 and began training under R. Rajesh at his academy in Thiruvanmiyur.

The 14-year-old is now the World No. 5 in the under-15 category and recently won the National singles title in that age bracket in Alappuzha.

But life was not easy for young Jennifer after the Chennai move.

“She came with a lot of potential, she was already the under-12 national champion then. But after that her game began to dip because she was growing tall very fast,” said Rajesh, a former international.

Growing pains

“She grew five to six inches in about two years. When you shoot up so suddenly, it is not easy for anybody to adjust. It was a big headache for me and for her. Because when you see, the ball is suddenly at a different level.

“The table, the vision of the ball… everything changes. She couldn’t adjust. Technically, she had a lot of difficulty adjusting to her body and movements, and her confidence came down.

“It took us some time but she was always a very hard-working girl, very sincere and with a lot of potential. On top of that, she is someone who is willing to learn and willing to learn from her mistakes. That is very important for you to grow.”

Once she settled into her ‘new’ 5’7” frame, Jennifer began producing results.

Seizing the initiative: Attack is Jennifer’s forte, a strength which helps her control rallies.
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Last year, she won five international titles, including triumphs in World Table Tennis (WTT) Youth Contender series events in Morocco, Tunisia and the Czech Republic. She also played the Youth Worlds in December in Tunisia, where she entered the pre-quarterfinals, and finished the year as the under-15 World No. 4.

“The Czech event [June 2022] was memorable because I beat the World No. 4 from Romania in the final. And in Morocco [August 2022], I beat my clubmate Suhana Saini in the under-17 final,” said Jennifer.

Rajesh is happy with the way she is shaping up. “She has been performing well this year. After two years she’s slowly becoming the player I want her to be,” he said.

Breaking barriers

2018 Commonwealth Games champion Manika Batra’s progress has inspired many young girls; it has broken huge mental barriers too.

“She has inspired me a lot. Even if she fails or loses, she comes back stronger,” Jennifer said about the current women’s World No. 34. “That’s the best thing I like about her. She might be losing but she still plays cool. In the Asian Cup [in Bangkok last November], she won the bronze medal [the first Indian woman to do so, beating Japan’s World No. 6 Hina Hayata] after losing the semifinal [to Japan’s World No. 2 Mima Ito].”

Former eight-time national champion Kamlesh Mehta, now the secretary of the Table Tennis Federation of India, feels the women’s game is growing like never before.

“Manika’s performances will give the belief to others that they can also do it. And that’s one of the major breakthroughs,” said Kamlesh.

“There are now three to four women in the world’s top 100…it has never been like that. Many of them are young, that’s also a good thing. We have a very good crop of players who are doing well at every age category. That means that there is a flow, there is a line, so there is hope.”

Clearly, Jennifer is one of them. Haryana’s Suhana Saini, the under-17 World No. 7 who is also Rajesh’s trainee in Chennai, also looks very promising. So does Maharashtra’s Riana Bhoota, the under-13 World No. 3.

“I have been training Suhana for a long time and as far as I’m concerned she and Jennifer will be the Saina [Nehwal] and [P.V.] Sindhu of Indian table tennis. The kind of potential they have, the kind of strokes they play, leave alone the success, the way they play, their presence at the table, they have a very good future,” said Rajesh.

“And Jennifer, if she grows up the right way, will break all barriers and may be as good as Manika.”

The UTT effect

Rajesh also feels the Ultimate Table Tennis league, held in India a few years ago, played a big role in taking the sport to new heights.

“Earlier, when our players were playing the Chinese or going for international meets, it was more for participation. They never really had any hope. That mindset has changed. I think the starting point of that mindset shift was the UTT,” he said.

“We had the foreigners coming here and we were beating them. That was when the players started believing in themselves. Also the support from the Government, which made them play more tournaments, helped them to move up the rankings.”

The Mumbai-born Jennifer, who has her roots in Thiruvalla in Kerala, is clear about her goals.

“First, it’s the rankings, then Commonwealth Games, then Olympics… I’m taking it step by step,” said the ninth standard student.

Rajesh has a special goal for her for this year.

“My immediate target for her will be to try to get a medal at the Youth Worlds [Slovenia, Nov. 2023] which she missed out on last year. Also to maintain her Indian ranking,” he said.

“After that, I want her to elevate to the next level, the under-19 and the women’s since she is showing promise. From next year we may have to forego under-17 and focus on under-19. She has to focus on her recovery also, she can’t be playing all the events all the time.”

Attack is Jennifer’s forte.

“Her strength is her attack, she is very good in the open game, in the rallies. She has some way to go to improve her service and reception. She is not tactically that strong but now she is learning to do that also,” said her coach. “Ball to ball and rally to rally, she is superior to many.”

Rajesh feels that more Manikas popping up will help the sport immensely. “What Manika is achieving, we wish to see three to four people doing that at the age of 19 and 20,” he said. “We don’t want a lone performance, the next batch should be four to five… that will help you push up the rankings together and faster.”