For Nithyashree Mani, the most important victories have not always come with scoreboards. Some have come in rehab sessions, in the quiet reassurance of a coach who stayed, and in the slow return of belief after her body forced her to stop.

The Chennai table tennis player was only 12 when surgery for a dislocated hip threatened to redraw her sporting future. Two years later, she won her first national title at the Under-15 level, her first medal at that stage. It was gold. “That win and my first medal being a gold gave me confidence and made me believe that maybe there is some spark in me that could take me forward in the sport,” she told Sportstar from Goa.

That spark did not fade. In 2022, Nithyashree, representing TTTA, became the Youth Girls U-19 national champion at Alappuzha, beating Maharashtra’s Risha Mirchandani 8-11, 11-7, 14-12, 11-3, 11-8 in the final. By then, the comeback was no longer merely about recovery. It had begun to shape the way she played.

There are still reminders of that surgery. Nithyashree says the hip is “almost behind” her, but not completely. She does not have extreme flexibility in that area and avoids certain movements.

The physical demands of table tennis, however, are well within what her body can manage. She consults the surgeon once a year, works with physios every month on hip mobility, and relies heavily on M.B. Subin Kumar, her coach of nearly 13 years.

“Not many coaches will want to work with a player who has had surgery at a very young age,” she says. “He believed in me first before I believed in myself.”

Last year brought another interruption. Nithyashree says injuries, including tennis elbow, kept her from international tournaments and affected her domestic season. Since returning to international competition in January, the clearest sign of her progress came at the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026.

Nithyashree, then listed as world No. 481, came through qualifying and stunned 14th seed Minhyung Jee of Australia 3-2 in the second round, winning 10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7 to reach the pre-quarterfinals. Her run ended against fourth seed Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei, but not before she took the first game in a 3-1 defeat, going down 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8.

“That tournament gave me a lot of confidence and made me believe more in myself and that I am capable of defeating more good players,” she says. “My only aim was to take it one match at a time, focus more on the process and not on the result, be more aggressive and stick to the strategy.”

She now carries that confidence into Ultimate Table Tennis Season 7 with U Mumba TT, which opens its title defence against host and two-time winner Dempo Goa Challengers on Thursday. Nithyashree made her UTT debut in 2024 with Jaipur Patriots after replacing Sreeja Akula, but this is a different dressing room and a different set of expectations.

At U Mumba, she will be part of a squad that includes Lilian Bardet, Akash Pal, Manush Shah, Anna Hursey and Anusha Kutumbale. She already knows Manush as a teammate and describes Bardet as joyful and supportive. The team format, she says, brings a different energy from ranking tournaments and WTT events, where players largely have to manage the rhythm of a match on their own.

In UTT, every point carries the weight of a bench, a team plan and a larger audience. That excites Nithyashree, but she does not want to dress it up as pressure.

“I don’t think there is anything to prove,” she says. “Whenever the team needs me, I will step in and do my part. I just want to enjoy myself, play my best game and be more aggressive on the table.”

The Asian Games question is more complicated. Nithyashree is not in India’s squad or reserve list for Aichi-Nagoya 2026. She does not frame the omission as a wound. She sees it as a marker. She has faced several of those in the mix, beaten some and pushed others close. The gap, she feels, is not merely technical. It is also about clarity and consistency of thought under pressure.

“I’m always trying to be positive on the table and think of solutions rather than sticking to the problems,” she adds. “I’m now trying to challenge them on each and every point.”

After UTT, she is scheduled to play the Commonwealth Championships in Delhi and the WTT Feeder in Laos before returning to the domestic circuit.

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Published on Jul 09, 2026