How To Switch Between Aggression & Calmness? Payas Jain Likes To Learn It The Novak Djokovic Way | Sports News

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Payas Jain, a 20-year-old table tennis player from Delhi, shares his journey, the city's table tennis culture and his admiration for Novak Djokovic.

Delhi's 20-year-old Payas Jain took to table tennis after he liked the sport while accompanying his paddler parents to their tournaments. Currently ranked sixth among Indian men, the youngster recently featured for Stanley's Chennai Lions in the Ultimate Table Tennis Season 6 in Ahmedabad.

Although Chennai's campaign didn't go according to plan, Payas did manage to beat the mixed doubles duo of Kolkata ThunderBlades' Adriana Diaz and Ankur Bhattacharjee earlier in the season, while accompanying World No. 34 Fan Siqi.

In an interaction with News18 Sports, Payas speaks about Delhi's growing table tennis culture, handling pressure while facing higher-ranked and experienced opponents and his admiration for Novak Djokovic. Excerpts:

Do you as a youngster see Delhi's table tennis culture growing by any means?

I feel that, generally, table tennis is getting popular. Before, it was not so much. But if you speak about Delhi, I would say the state has produced a lot of national champions. Not two or three, but a lot of national champions. So, Delhi doesn't have a lot of players who are playing, but high-quality players who have produced a lot of results for the country as well as for the state.

You beat Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the main round of WTT Star Contender. Did you feel the pressure of playing an Olympian and a very experienced player?

You have some pressure while playing with them. Not just because of them, but you also have some personal goals and ambitions which you want to achieve, some wins which you want to bag and I had some pressure but not a lot because I know Sathiyan from a very long time, we have been playing together and then I have played twice and thrice with him.

Besides TT, is there any other sport you follow? Who is your favourite sports person?

I follow almost all the sports, but normally, I follow tennis as well as badminton a little bit. But I don't watch too much. Only the main matches I like to watch, like in tennis. Tennis, I normally follow, but in cricket, I normally watch the T20 World Cup or the IPL.

I have two favourite sportspeople. So, one is from table tennis, which is Zhang Jike. He is from China. He is retired now, and the second one is Novak Djokovic. They both are my idols.

What inspires you about Novak Djokovic?

On court, Djokovic doesn't show you. He is angry inside, but he doesn't show you how he is feeling. Maybe he has some aggression, or maybe he is feeling down.

He doesn't show you on the court. So, I feel that this is something which I have learnt from the past few years, and I admire him in this way that mentally, he is very calm, but on the court, he is very aggressive

What is the basis of your game? Do you like to play with aggression or just keep calm throughout?

I like to be very aggressive. Sometimes, there are moments when I need to breathe. I don't need to go very aggressive. So, it all depends on the mental training side. So, some opponents like you to be very loud, and some opponents don't like it when you are too loud. So, I switch between both according to the match situation.