Natasha Palha

[vatsal323]

Here is the new thread for Natasha. She's made it to four ITF singles finals, so I guess this thread is justified enough!

[sameerph]

Yes, although it is not strictly as per unwritten rules, it is fine as in many other cases.

I guess she is first player from Goa to come up to this level at least which is a very good achievement.

[vatsal323]

Here's the interview that I did with Natasha a few weeks back. Sorry for posting it so late, as I was busy with college! VT refers to my name, which is, Vatsal Tolasaria. And NP refers to Natasha Palha.

Excerpts:

VT - How and when did you start playing Tennis?

NP - I started playing at the age of 7. My elder sister used to play, so I started practising at home. My parents always liked the sport, so they put me into it as a fun activity. I played my first tournament when I was 10, and then one thing led to another.

VT - Since Goa is not known for its Tennis, was it more difficult?

NP - Yes. I always had to travel outside to practice and for tournaments, so that made it more expensive and troublesome.

VT - Is there any encouragement from the Goa Government? Or any sponsors that help you in your journey?

NP - Dempo sponsors me partly, and has been of great help. Also, Yonex provides me with racquets.

VT - How difficult is it for Indians to make a living out of Tennis?

NP - It's tough not just for Indians, but for everyone, as only around 200 athletes make a living out of the sport.

VT - Is the AITA supportive in any way?

NP - AITA organises tournaments in India, which provide points to Indian players, without having to travel outside the country. Apart from that, it does not provide any financial assistance directly.

VT - It has been observed that Indian women do better at home than abroad? Any particular reasons for that?

NP - I think it's the mental toughness, along with the fact that foreign athletes are physically tougher as well. Us Indians need a lot of work in both the departments.

VT - Since players have to make their own line calls in lower level tournaments, do you recall any instances of local players cheating?

NP - Not really. Most of the tournaments I go to have chair umpires these days. So it's not a problem at all. But yeah, it used to happen in AITA tournaments in my junior days.

VT - What are your ambitions in Tennis? Do you have any ranking goal for the near future?

NP - I want to be a singles Top 100 player. I want to be in the Top 300 by next April.

VT - Who's your coach now?

NP - Hemant Bendre

VT - What is your upcoming tournament schedule?

NP - I travel to Uzbekistan in May for a couple of ITF tournaments.

[sameerph]

That is a nice interview, Vatsal. Hope she fulfils her ambition and it inspires more tennis players from Goa to come up.

[vatsal323]

Thanks. I tried to include all the questions that you and Suresh Sir sent!

[suresh]

Vatsal, Great job and thanks for the teaser. Waiting to read the full interview.

[RohitG]

Thanks Vatsal

[jaydeep]

Great job Vatsal.

[PKBasu]

Thanks Vatsal for an excellent interview!

[Varma]

That's a nice interview, Vatsal. Thanks for your time & effort. Thanks also to Natasha for giving us a peek into her plans.

- Varma

[sameerph]

Natasha is playing in China and qualified thru to the 25K challenger there.

At $25K ITF Women, Qujing, China

[Q1] Natasha PALHA (IND) [6] BYE
[Q2] Natasha PALHA (IND) [6] 6-1 6-1 Yu Tong TANG (CHN)

[Q3] Natasha PALHA (IND) [6] 7-5 6-1 Yixuan LI (CHN) [9]

She also played in China last week but lost in second qualfying round.

Next,

[R1] (Q) Natasha PALHA (IND,588) vs. Xu Liu SUN (CHN,441)

[sameerph]

At $25K ITF Women, Qujing, China

[R1] (Q) Natasha PALHA (IND,588) l. Xu Liu SUN (CHN,441) 46 46

Since start of this year, Natasha has been pursuing a risky path of playing only in challenger level qualies and ignoring futures level events much like Sumit and Prajnesh on mens side. Not so successful so far. She has played in 7 challenger qualies this year ( 4 in Australia, 2 in China and 1 in Uzbekistan) and qualified only in 2 of them and lost in first round in both of those. In the meantime she directly got into main draw in 2 challengers in Uzbekistan where she won a round each. So, overall 2 main draw wins in 9 tournaments.

I think needs to mix up some $10K events too to maintain her ranking and get some wins to increase her confidence level.

[sameerph]

Natasha played in 2 more challenger level qualifying events in last 2 weeks but failed to qualify.

At $50K ITF Women, Wuhan,China

[Q1] Ziyue SUN (CHN) 6-3 6-0 Natasha PALHA (IND)

At $25K ITF Women, Nonthaburi , Thailand

[Q1] Natasha PALHA (IND) [3] BYE
[Q2] Katherine IP (HKG) [9] 5-7 6-3 7-5 Natasha PALHA (IND) [3]

So, the risky path of playing only challenger qualies is not playing off still for Natasha.

In the Thailand challenger, Snehadevi is also playing directly in main draw and playing doubles with Natasha. We will discuss that in her thread.

[vatsal323]

Once again I had the opportunity of hitting with Natasha today. Me, along with one of my teammates, went to Miramar to play with her. Her groundstrokes are really big, especially the forehand. Moves really well, better than last time I think. The serve is a handicap though, of course, because of her relatively short height. She's flying to Pune on the 19th for the $10K event and has 4 tournaments left to play this year. She hopes to do well in them and push her ranking back up again.

PS - I played a few tiebreaks against her. Lost 7-3, 7-2, and 9-7(Was 6-5 up. Could have won that one!)

[sameerph]

Good. So, she is getting quality opposition to practice with.

Natahsa tried to be ambitious this year and travel abroad only for challenger level events where she had to go thru qualies. She was only partly successful in that and as a result, her ranking has fallen from close to 500 to outside 600. Not having too many tournaments in India this year did not help.

But, there are 5 tournaments this year in India now . So, if she has the quality in her game, she can bring her ranking back to close or inside top 500.