The Goa Challengers players were, one by one, coming to a quiet room in one corner of their hotel to fulfill their media duties. Amidst all this, the young Abhinandh P. B. was asked for his autograph. He duly obliged. Curiously, his signature started with a star.
“[chuckles] Because I want to be a star. I want to be a superstar, I’d say. I also feel it’s creative when you start with a star because my name starts with an A. I tried many signatures and the star stuck,” he revealed.
Quite fittingly, his third season in the Ultimate Table Tennis has had the makings of a star paddler. Monikered as the ‘giant-slayer’ by the commentators, Abhinandh has displayed his daring approach in a measured way. He took down Lilian Bardet, Ankur Bhattacharjee, Payas Jain, and Youssef Abdelaziz in the league stage, with all of them ranked higher in the world than him, and older, barring Bhattacherjee.
Even when he wasn’t at his best, he found ways to get back into the game.
“I’ll say something to myself like ‘Okay, these mistakes happen, let’s focus on the next game’. I tend to run a lot [around the playing arena in between points], which boosts my energy level and makes me even more active. Running helps me think about what to do next. Sometimes I would slap myself if I’m not doing that well, if I’m not that conscious.”
In the semifinals too, Abhinandh just needed to take one game off of Dabang Delhi’s G. Sathiyan, and he did it in the first. Although he seemed to have lost his way in the middle, the teen found his way back to carry the Challengers into the final.
Abhinandh with his childhood coach, Subin Kumar (right). | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“I had some thoughts running in my head. I was leading 9-5 and then I tried two shots which were unnecessary. It became 9-9 but I didn’t go into a negative mindset. Getting a 9-5 lead against such a player, it’s a very big thing. I want to thank my coach Subin Kumar who is in Chennai. He gave me so many ideas and strategies before the game. At 9-9, I didn’t care if I won or lost. I just wanted to give my everything. I’m very happy that it paid off,” he said after the match.
Early promise
His coach Subin is someone who has seen him grow up at the table. A five-year old Abhinandh, a local of Chennai’s Thiruvanmiyur area, walked into Subin’s Chennai Achievers Table Tennis Academy, situated nearby. His parents wanted to enroll him in some sport and they found the establishment through the local newspapers.
“My earliest memory of him is how interested he was in table tennis, at that age,” Subin told Sportstar over a phone call.
A year later, when he was six, an instance at the academy made the coach realise that Abhinandh is capable of something big.
“We were having rallies where I fed him the balls. We would set him targets, and he would achieve them. But this kid wanted to hit more balls. One day, at one go, he hit 615 balls. He didn’t want to stop hitting, he wanted me to leave the ball. And he was enjoying the sport with extreme focus,” Subin recalled.
Slowly, as a younger Abhinandh moved into the intermediate level, his win-at-all-cost attitude had already been made apparent, Subin remembered.
Abhinandh was teammates with Sharath Kamal, right, at Chennai Lions in 2024. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“He’s an aggressive player who tries to dominate the opponent. Off the table, he’s quiet, won’t mingle easily. He’s friendly and good to talk to, but neither an introvert nor an extrovert,” the coach said of his student of 13 years.
Working on mentality
The attitude of never to throw in the towel is something Abhinandh and Subin have worked on, especially over the last year.
“I had so many losses in the domestic season. We both talked about what was needed, what was not needed, how to approach the game. I used to think a lot before. Now, I pretty much don’t,” Abhinandh explained.
He said some of this game-planning was executed during this edition of the UTT, which pleased him.
“I would not say it just worked out by luck or something. It’s the determination which I had and the mental strength which I have improved from last year. I was average in the domestic circuit, then my mental stability improved and I am able to perform well now,” he added.
‘He has become dangerous’
Flashes of his promise could be seen during the last UTT edition which was held in Ahmedabad. On his debut — donning U Mumba colours, the team he is set to face in the final this time — he had beaten Izaak Quek 2-1. But his journey in the league began a year earlier in his hometown and at the dugout of Chennai Lions.
Although he didn’t play a match in the 2024 edition, his then teammate Sharath Kamal, former India international and the current UTT ambassador, remembered Abhinandh as a “nice character”.
“In these two years, he’s had a great transformation. There’s a lot more focus on him and his game has become more dangerous, I would say. As a 16-year-old back then, he was still trying to build on the structure, the system that he wanted to play,” Sharath said.
Whenever the two meet, knowledge transfer is a given. Even after the semifinal against Delhi, they spoke, Sharath revealed. “I was speaking to him about why he isn’t doing a certain shot during the matches, is he scared or he doesn’t want to miss those points. So I keep talking to him generally also.”
The 13-time Commonwealth Games medallist and Olympian also noted that getting consistent was the one improvement he’d seen over these few years.
“As a younger player, he had various options. He had different serves, he could play differently. But then consistency lacks when you have too many options. So he’s built his game on a particular serve and then he mixes up from there. I think his forehand is lethal and his footwork, especially after the serve, is very good. I would like to see how he’s able to cope in the longer rallies when people are able to rally him out,” Sharath analysed.
Abhinandh’s coach Subin, too, weighed in on the areas he felt his student needed to work on as they aim to gradually transition from the Under-19 level to the senior category.
“He needs to work on his backhand and I want him to twiddle the racket and attack with the soft rubber. People have started to avoid his forehand and attack his backhand,” the coach said.
Just days after the UTT final, Abhinandh will travel to Vientiane, Laos for the WTT Youth Contender event before he takes part in the WTT Feeder event in the same city. But the bigger picture is clear for coach and disciple.
“He wants to break into the senior team before his U-19 days are behind him. He’s beaten most of the current Indian players and if he can be in the top four of the national rankings next year, he has a chance to make the Olympics,” Subin looked ahead.
Even Sathiyan, another established paddler from Chennai, lauded the youngster’s improvement. “I think he has a great future in Indian table tennis. I hope he continues, and I would like to see him in the Indian senior team very soon.”
Minutes after Sathiyan’s praise, Abhinandh is now aiming rub shoulders with his senior in national colours .“Big thanks to him for mentioning my name. He’s a very senior player. I pretty much take what he said. I would like to join the senior team as soon as possible,” he added.
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Published on Jul 26, 2026