Telangana’s Jatin Dev, bright paddler in the making

Jatin Dev is currently ranked no. 1 in Telangana in under-17 and under-19 categories and has represented India twice in WTT Youth Contender in Slovenia and Croatia in 2021

Hyderabad: Telangana’s 15-year-old paddler Jatin Dev has been impressive with his performances winning double titles at the 35th St Paul’s Annual Telangana State Ranking Inter-School Table Tennis Tournament in Hyderabad recently.

The youngster is currently ranked no. 1 in the State in under-17 and under-19 categories and has represented India twice in WTT Youth Contender in Slovenia and Croatia in 2021. He also has two bronze medals in Nationals. He also clinched State titles in the under-12, 15, 17, and 19 age groups for the last six years.

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Hailing from Domalguda, Jatin started playing table tennis at seven under coach K Ramakrishna at St Paul’s High School. The 69-year-old Ramakrishna has been coaching paddlers at the school for the past 20 years and picked up Jatin when he was in the Class III.

“I saw Jatin’s passion for the game and knew he had the spark. I used to take him on my scooter to several academies where he could face other players for exposure,” he said.

On Ramakrishna’s advice for high-level training, Jatin joined Somnath Ghosh UTT Academy where India international paddlers S Fidel R Snehit and Akula Sreeja train.

Upon joining the new academy in January 2022, Jatin was a bit nervous but soon adjusted to the new training regimen. He now enjoys training with both the India international players and credits them for his improvement as a player. “I admire Sreeja di’s discipline and diligence, which I aim to emulate in my own life,” he said.

Jatin, who is studying in Class X now at the Little Flower High School, believes that his backhand is his strength and attributes it to Snehit. “I have improved my backhand technique from Snehit bhaiya.”

The teenager dreams of representing India in the Olympics. But his current target is to dish out a strong performance in the next national event. He is also preparing to travel to Spain for a 20-day camp. “To gain more experience and exposure we have decided to send Jatin to Spain for camp next month which will definitely be a good experience for him,” said Somnath Ghosh, coach and mentor at Somnath Ghosh UTT Academy.

The coach believes Jatin’s good show in the last tournament has brought a lot of confidence and belief within him and rates his ward highly, stating, “Jatin is a promising player. He is a very good prospect for Telangana State and he is someone in the pipeline after Snehit.”