Need to manage match endings better, improve smash quality: Tanvi Patri 

Rohit Mitra 

New Delhi: India’s young shuttler Tanvi Patri, who created a buzz last week by winning the women’s singles silver medal at the the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar feels that she needs to manage the final stage of matches better and improve the quality of her smashes so as to take her game to the next level.

Addressing press persons during an online media interaction organised by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Monday, the 15 year old said

“Competing at the youth Olympics was special as I gained a lot of confidence. I know now that during the end of the matches, when you are leading or the score is neck to neck, we should just play inside the court and not target the lines too much. I need to reduce errors from the faster side(of the court), half smashes and all, I need to work on accuracy and more on my physical functioning.”

Emphasizing on the importance of the smash shot she said “Power wise I would like to improve(the smash shot), and at times it goes out so I have to work on my accuracy as well.”

The Bengaluru resident’s final match was against China’s BWF World Junior Championships 2026 winner Zhang Yixin. The match, which lasted for one hour and 22 minutes turned out to be a classic, featuring an edge of the seat see saw battle during the third set.

At one point Tanvi was trailing 10-19, she won five points in a row to make it 19-15, then saved six match points in a row, and earned three chances to claim the gold medal. Eventually, Zhang prevailed with a 26-24 win(overall score- 15–21, 21–13, 24–26).

The class 10th student spoke about her fight back from 10-19 during the third set, “I was focusing on one point at a time and not thinking about the result, I concentrated on reducing my errors, specially from the faster side where my lifts were going out, I tried to remain positive and play inside the court as much possible I told myself that I should not give up and give my best”

Her incredible fight back in the match had won wide spread praise, especially from PV Sindhu and shooter Abhinav Bindra.

Tanvi said that she did not regret losing the gold medal by a whisker, “I am happy with my silver as I gave my best”

She picked Danish legend Viktor Axelsen, former Chinese great Lin Dan and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Tai Tzu-ying as some of her favorite players, “I like their attitude on the court and the way they play, they don’t give any points easily, they hit their strokes very precisely and confidently, they are accurate and they are always patient on the court, they don’t rush to get points.”

She also expressed her admiration for world number one women’s badminton player An Se-young, “An Se-young does not give up, even when she is behind, her strokes are really good and she knows when to play the correct stroke, and I really like her attitude as well.”

Tanvi, who trains at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru described how she started her badminton journey while residing in China where her father was posted , “My dad used to play, so I would join him and then I would play as his double’s partner, eventually our coach advised my father that I should join an academy so I started that way. I started badminton in China when I was 7 and half years old. In China, badminton infrastructure is open to all, I played for almost three years there.”

She highlighted that coaching culture in China tends to lay maximum stress on technique, “in China the coaches focus a lot on technique, my first coach late Xu sir also told me to focus first and foremost on technique, and that has stood me in good stead, at the Prakash Padukone Badminton academy the coaches have helped me with improving my speed.” She also informed that it was a Chinese coach who suggested to her father to get her admitted to the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.

She felt confident of significantly improving her rating at the BWF rankings and spoke about her future goals, “For the next 2-3 years the larger picture will be qualifying for the LA 2028 Olympics, that will be hard but I will still try. In 2027 my goal is to win Asian Under 19 Championships and give my best at the World junior championships.I am targetting a top 30 ranking at the BWF rankings by the end of 2027.”