Samarth Sahita Reflects on ITF Juniors J100 Pune Final
Pune, India – Following a strong run to the final of the ITF J100 Pune singles tournament, Indian junior Samarth Sahita sat down with Indian Tennis Daily to discuss his performance, game plan, and future goals. Sahita, the third seed, finished as the runner-up after losing the all-Indian final to Gautam Venkatraman with a score of 6-2, 7-6(3).
Q & A with Samarth Sahita
Indian Tennis Daily (ITD): Hey Samarth, thank you so much for talking to Indian Tennis Daily. Congratulations on an amazing tournament. How are you feeling?
Samarth Sahita: Thank you so much first of all for having me. And yeah, I had a pretty good run this week. Just messed up a bit in the finals. But yeah, big shout out to him [Gautam Venkatraman]—he just played really well today.
ITD: What was your game plan coming into the final today, especially since you played Gautam last week?
Samarth Sahita: My game plan was to use a lot of variations today. As I played him last week in Delhi in the second round and I beat him over there, the plan was not to give him pace because he likes it a lot and doesn’t miss in that. So the plan was to use a lot of variations with slices, slow balls, high balls, then going to the net attacking more. But yeah, I just couldn’t use it in the correct way today.
ITD: Is there anything you think you could have done differently in the match?
Samarth Sahita: I could have served much better. I think I didn’t serve really well, especially in the first set. That was the reason I was defending in the whole match, because he was just attacking my second serves a lot. So the first important thing was that I could have served well. Also, the first shot of every point [the ‘plus one shot’] was going right into his hitting zone. So that could have been a bit more effective, I guess.
ITD: What did you think about the playing conditions here in Pune?
Samarth Sahita: The playing conditions are really nice over here. The courts are fast, which usually suits my game style as I’m an attacking player—I like to go to the net a lot more. The conditions were suiting me a lot, and even the weather was pretty nice. It was not too hot, not too cold, just suitable for playing.
ITD: How do you review your season overall?
Samarth Sahita: In the season I had a lot of ups and downs. I started the season really well and then in between I had some downs because of health issues and injuries. And then again, in the end of the year, I made a final and a semi-final. So, I had a lot of ups and downs, but I just try to take the positives and move on.
ITD: What are your goals for the next season?
Samarth Sahita: Next season my goals are to at least play all four Slams in the main draw and move forward. I also want to do well in the Futures circuit too. This year I played two or three Futures M15s and M25s. Next year I’ll be playing a lot more of them and, yeah, do well in them too.
ITD: Could you tell us about your coaching setup and where you train?
Samarth Sahita: Currently I train in Ahmedabad at Altevol Tennis Academy under Mr. Shrimal Bhatt. And once or twice a year I usually visit Germany at Alexander Waske Tennis University, as the academy in India, Altevol, and the German academy have a tie-up. Over there, I train under Mr. Alexander Waske and a coach named Cobus Van Wyk.
ITD: Can you tell us about how you got into tennis and your early playing days?
Samarth Sahita: My dad always wanted to put me into sports. I was born in Ahmedabad, so first he was going to put me in table tennis. But when I was a year old, we shifted to Mumbai because he changed his job. My dad had played tennis in an office tournament in Ahmedabad. When we shifted to Mumbai, they couldn’t find a good table tennis academy, but they found a tennis academy. Plus, my dad was already playing, so they just put me into tennis. I was only three years old when I first started.
Photos by Neeraj
