India TT player Harmeet Desai finding his top table game

For a man who has pulled off victories against three of the world’s top 30 paddlers over the last two weeks in World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender tournaments, Harmeet Desai is notably measured in his elation. On the rare occasions he grants himself a verbal pat on the back, one sentence sums up the 29-year-old's international table tennis career thus far: “It feels good that after so many years of hard work, it is now starting to bear fruit.”

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One that has never tasted sweeter. After years of stepping up for the Indian team in multi-sport events yet largely flying under the radar individually, Desai strung together his best singles run at the elite level in spectacular fashion.

Coming through the qualifying rounds at the WTT Contender Lagos a fortnight ago, Desai, then ranked world No.134, took out world No.12 and top seed Jang Woo-jin of South Korea 3-0 in the Round of 16. A stunning one-off? Not quite. Desai went on to beat 26th-ranked Chinese Xiang Peng 3-1 in the quarterfinals, booking his first semi-final in a WTT tour event and scripting Indian table tennis’ standout outcome in men’s singles so far this year.

Not quite a stunning on-off tournament either. Now ranked 77, Desai returned to his giant-killing ways in the WTT Contender Tunis, beating world No.11 Lim Jong-hoon of South Korea 3-2 in the Round of 32 on Thursday before exiting in the next round.

“The form has been great this month,” Desai said from Zagreb, where he will play his third Contender event in as many weeks. “I’m very happy with how I’ve been playing; it’s a big morale-booster. It gives me the confirmation that I’m on the right track.”

It took a while to gather such momentum. Rated as one of the brightest prospects as a junior —the Surat-born paddler had won the U-21 Brazil Open singles title in 2012 — Desai’s senior career was a more muted ride even as the evergreen Sharath Kamal and a rising G Sathiyan remained the spotlight-grabbing pace-setters.

Not that Desai wasn’t running a good race himself. Part of the men's team that won both the 2018 Asian Games bronze and Commonwealth Games (CWG) gold, Desai won his first senior national singles title in 2019. He played a vital role in the team defending its CWG gold in Birmingham last year. In the final against Singapore that India won 3-1, Desai's singles victory (he also played doubles) against Clarence Chew proved critical after Sharath had lost to the same player. However, as far as personal achievements at the international circuit go — like of the last two weeks — it took some time coming. And it did test his patience.

“Initially, it would disturb me quite a lot,” Desai said. “But there came a point when I stopped focusing on results. Sometimes, it takes time, and I accepted that. You have to be patient. That way, I’m a lot more mature now, a lot calmer. My focus turned to improving my game and trusting the process and not about when the results would turn my way. Again, this only shows that persistently if you work hard, sooner or later results will come.”

Mindset change is also a major reason behind his recent victories. Working with a mental conditioning coach, Desai now maintains a diary in which he writes notes daily about his day gone by and plans for the next. It also contains his analysis of various opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and how he can exploit that.

“Earlier, I would lack that belief when I played the top players,” he said. “Mentally I feel the difference in my body language and approach now. It is more positive. I have the belief that I can match these top players. And the results have shown that.”

His game has gone through fine-tuning too. “My attacking game was always good, so I worked on my passive game, stuff like blocking, etc.,” Desai, whose training base is in Germany, said. “I realised mine was more a one-dimensional game, and on the days when my attack isn't working or the opponent is better at it, I needed to have a Plan B. That’s what helped me in these wins.”

It also helped him rise 57 spots in the rankings within a week, with the way only further upward after Tunis. The dramatic jump “feels good”, he said, although a more consistent flow of such wins and results would feel even better.

“Anyone can do it one or two times. I want to do it consistently in the future — that is the big challenge,” he said. “The potential is there, and that's why it has happened. But now that I’m here, I want to remain at that level.”

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