21 Feb 2018 | 06:00am IST
The squash kid from the port town
Picking up the squash racquet at the tender age of nine years, Samairah Bhandare has achieved smashing wins, ranking her up on the national level. Café chats with this young achiever from Vasco to know more about her love for squash
Samairah Raj Bhandare had her eye on lawn tennis
without realising that her latent talent
was in squash. On the encouragement of her coach, Rehman Sayyed, this Vasco
resident decided to take squash more seriously and there has been no looking
back since then. Now ten, Samairah started playing squash in September 2017 and
within five months, she is on number 17 in the Girls Under 11 ranking of the
Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI).
Daughter of Raj and Sneha Bhandare,
Samairah plays squash in the Under 11 Category and has been playing the
National Championships since September 2017. She ranked 5th at the Khelshala
Squash Championship, Chandigarh in December 2017, 7th at the Juhu Gymkhana Open
Tournament, Mumbai in January 2018 and 6th at the Hamdard Delton Squash
Championship, Delhi in February 2018. “I love to play in as many tournaments as
I can and my dream tournament is the one where I win the finals,” says this
young sportsperson.
She is currently being trained by Coach
Rehman Sayyed and plays at the Naval Officers Institute in Vasco, participating
in varjious SRFI tournaments. Her first match was at the Bombay Gymkhana Open
in September 2017. Samairah is inspired by India’s leading squash player,
Akanksha Salunkhe, who is also from Vasco.
“She actually started with lawn tennis
when she was 6 years old. We used to drive down from Vasco to Gasper Dias Club
in Panjim, four times a week. We could manage that for only one and half years
and then it became too taxing with increasing traffic. So for more than a year,
she wasn’t playing any sport though she yearned for tennis. Then we thought why
not another racquet sport. Our close friend, Mahesh Prabhu, is the Treasurer of
Goa Squash Association; he suggested we introduce her to squash. Initially, she
was hesitant to change her game. But as she started training at Naval Officers
Institute, she started enjoying the game,” explains mum Sneha about how
Samairah got into the sport.
A class 5 student of Naval Children School, Vasco, Samairah is
supported by her principal and teachers. “Her teachers help her cover up the
academics whenever she is out for tournaments. She follows a fixed curriculum
and balances her academics well. In fact, the school takes great pride in her
sport and is always willing to encourage her to do better. She is also training
in Hindustani classical vocals and will be appearing for exams shortly. She is
training under Pradeep Naik. Squash is a physically demanding game so her
interest in music actually helps her relax,” adds Sneha.
Samairah watches sports channels and wonders as to why squash is
not as widely watched and telecast as much as tennis.
To play squash, one needs good hand-eye coordination, agility
and spatial awareness. All these skills are further enhanced as the child starts
playing regularly. Physical fitness is of utmost importance in this sport.
Samairah practises for two hours, four times a week and on Saturday and Sunday,
she practices for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.
“It is a much more challenging game as I cannot see my opponent,
their expressions and their next move. You have to be completely ready for what
comes next,” says Samairah.
Though she was already used to playing lawn tennis, it took some
training to make the switch to squash. “The way you hold the racquet, the swing
and footwork are all totally different in both sports. Coach Rehman had to work
on her swing and grip quite a lot since muscle memory would make her hold the
racquet in a tennis grip. She is a very competitive child, and she takes her
game seriously. Yes, she does lose and initially it would upset her a lot. The
game has taught her to be resilient and mentally strong. Just recently, she won
against an opponent who had defeated her in December. That was a great high for
her,” says Sneha.
Sneha is constantly travelling with Samairah for the tournaments
across India. “She has played in Mumbai, Secunderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh and
Delhi and her next tournaments will be in Jaipur, Kolkata, Guwahati and
Dehradun.
To
conclude, Samairah says, “My aim is to get better at my game and to get a
better position in all forthcoming tournaments.”