Hyderabad girl Diya lighting up pickle ball circuits
Hyderabad’s Diya Mattipati has won the Junior National under-18 pickleball title in Ahmedabad just three months after taking up the sport. The teenager is now targeting selection to India’s squad for the Junior World Cup in Vietnam later this year
Hyderabad: For someone who started pickleball only three months ago, Diya Mattipati has surprised not just herself but critics too by winning the Junior National (under-18) title in Ahmedabad and moving closer to making it to the Indian team for the Junior World Cup in Vietnam later this year.
The 18-year-old Diya, who is a trainee at Advantage Tennis Academy under the mentorship of DRC Kiron, one of the cleanest and most straightforward tennis coaches in the city, informed Telangana Today that she initially started playing pickleball to improve her touch game and volleys in tennis.
“Since we had two clay courts at the Academy, I started taking it a little more seriously and, when there is a break in the tennis circuit, I compete in pickleball. In March this year, I won the Hyderabad Pickleball League women’s title and that turned out to be a big boost,” she explained.
The second-year degree student of St. Francis College in the city said her consistency saw her take part in the national selections for the Junior World Cup, and she looked confident of making the team too.
“Yes, definitely, it will be great to represent India in any World Cup. I hope, if selected, to come back with something big,” Diya said with a smile.
“Obviously, I owe whatever I have achieved in tennis and pickleball to my coach Kiron Sir. He is such an amazing person, always keen to see the trainees keep improving every day,” the young champion said.
With father Subhan (a businessman dealing in electricals in the city) and mother Onisha (a housewife) extending complete support, Diya gently reminded that doing well does not mean she will leave tennis.
“It will be great to do really well in both disciplines,” she said.
For his part, Kiron said pickleball had exploded in popularity, but with its rapid rise comes a hidden tax on the human body.
“The sport itself isn’t inherently bad for you; rather, how you approach and play the game determines whether you will enjoy years of healthy competition or find yourself sidelined with an injury within months,” he said.
“Pickleball may look easy, but it is a very demanding sport too. It puts a real load on your joints, requires sudden bursts of energy, demands extreme agility and involves continuous lateral side-to-side movements.
Kiron also cautioned against critical mistakes that players should avoid, such as skipping the warm-up before stepping onto the court, wearing the wrong footwear, playing on unyielding and hard concrete courts, and omitting a cool-down routine after matches.
“Yes, it is great that pickleball is becoming extremely popular and, in a way, giving tennis players an advantage and another platform to showcase their skills,” Kiron concluded.