• Pritikha Pavade is the youngest of the French delegation.

  • Biggest potential in house ping since Jean-Philippe Gatien, she has a game full of variation to die for, and remarkable psychological strength for a 16-year-old girl.

  • She does not start favorite against the Asians, big favorites of the competition, whom she has never faced.

From our special correspondent in Tokyo,

On it you've read the same thing everywhere, or pretty much.

Youngest member of the French delegation, greatest potential of the house ping since Jean-Philippe Gatien, a game all in variation to die for, and a remarkable psychological strength for a 16-year-old girl: The loss of her lifelong trainer, who died suddenly from 'cardiac arrest in 2019 did not bend a more impressive outcome curve than that of the Delta variant.

Everything is true, let's not come back to it.

So what ?

So Pritikha Pavade, announced huge in 2024, has never yet plucked an Asian player in her life in singles, which, these days, amounts to selling us a future French Tour winner who would never have scratched a plot in a fair race in Slovenia.

Rather expected in 2024

Let's get on well: the presence of the young girl in Japan is part of the stay in Lourdes.

No one expected her so soon, so soon, when she had never played in a senior competition before the Olympic qualifying tournament.

However, she has never hit higher than the 60th in the world, which is a long way before the medal in Paris, all the same.

"We also want to see what she will be able to produce beyond this ranking, but we do not know, recognizes the DTN Jean-Nicolas Barrelier, Prithika does not know the best Asian players [90% of the top 50 , to shorten it].

There she will be able to measure the gap ”.

Gap that we still guess abysmal, wrongly?

The young girl is less worried than us:

“I don't know Chinese women but I watch a lot of videos to dissect their strengths.

It interests me to see how they play.

Physically, they are very complete, and their playing is very balanced, with a good mix between speed and the various possible effects.

Afterwards, to actually judge the difference in the quality of the ball, I would have to be on the other side of the table ”.

In fact, it has already happened a few times during training.

Often among the Japanese, moreover, the rising nation of the game in recent years.

What did she take away from it?

“Athletes whose lifestyle is punctuated by table tennis.

They have a really busy schedule, with a lot of time in the gym.

I remember that we didn't even have time for a nap between two workouts ”.

What else ?

Lots of physical preparation, and tactical work built around the enlightened concept of counter-initiative.

Briefly: on the one hand those who attack the ball, and on the other those who counter by putting an effect on top, the style of play being, if we have understood correctly, much more rigid than in tennis, for example.

“It is not the same technical culture as China, we are more on service-delivery sequences,” says Pavade.

"See if she is able to climb a step"

It is launched on the comparison with the little genius in boys, the Japanese Harimoto, world number 4 at 19 years old. Determined Response “Our game is not quite comparable. I am less enduring physically, my strength is my speed of movement and the initiative. I am not afraid of failing, even if it means going wrong before the other ”. In the words of the DTN, it says "audacity". “Having daring in our game identity and leaving Tokyo without regrets, for Pritikha as for the others. She has always shown extreme serenity in her progress, we will see how she evolves in this context of high pressure, if she is able to climb a step ”.

And why not fall against an Asian, to see.

The last time, in junior, it had led to a historic victory against China, in doubles with his girlfriend….

“It's still a different feeling to beat them, we can not speak of banality, especially in the world championship, concedes Pavade.

It shows that we can try to compete with them.

But in simple, it's something else ”.

For the moment.

World

To read also: Olympic Games Tokyo-2021: Arrived in Japan, Emmanuel Macron says France "hard at work" for Paris-2024

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