Earlier than her opening singles rubber in opposition to India’s Sreeja Akula on the WTT Star Contender Goa, Hana Goda spent two days and lots of hours of it watching movies from their two earlier encounters. Each instances, Sreeja had overwhelmed her 3-0 and Hana was keen to vary the third time round.
She did, knocking the Indian out 3-1, these couple of days immersed in self-analysis paying off.
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“Desk tennis takes, like, 99% of my day,” Hana stated.
Uncommon for a 15-year-old. There may be, nonetheless, hardly something traditional about this Egyptian teen.
Final Might, when she was all of 14 years and seven months, Hana gained the 2022 ITTF-Africa Cup in Lagos to grow to be the youngest ever winner of a Continental Cup title. En route she went previous Nigerian legend Olufunke Oshonaike and compatriot Dina Meshref, two of probably the most completed names in African girls’s desk tennis. Hana had additionally overwhelmed them each within the 2021 African Senior Championships earlier than falling one step quick within the closing.
“The African Cup win was undoubtedly one of many huge turning factors for me. A yr in the past, I reached the ultimate and was main 3-1. And everybody was ready, like, that is the second Hana might be one thing. However then I misplaced,” she stated.
Hana might be one thing. So goes the consensus. The president of the Egyptian desk tennis federation has labelled her a “miracle”. The ITTF-Africa referred to as her “the rise of a brand new daybreak”. At 15, she is simply 10 spots behind Meshref within the WTT world rankings at 39. Again house, she will’t stroll across the streets with out selfie requests every day.
“Perhaps round 5 (selfies) a day, relying on the place I’m,” Hana chuckled. “I am fairly well-known in Egypt. However I do not need to be well-known! They are saying I am well-known, however I do not know, possibly!”
You certainly are if Mohamed Salah, the star Liverpool footballer and Egypt’s sporting icon, accepts your problem for a recreation of desk tennis on social media. “Perhaps that is what bought me extra well-known!” Hana quipped.
Hana first performed the game aged 4, when she was too quick to even attain the peak of the desk. “I might play on a lower desk,” she stated. Her household had nothing to do with any sport whereas each her mom and father are medical doctors. “I simply picked it up randomly,” Hana stated.
The bottom of Hana’s recreation was shaped on the Al Ahly membership, the place she nonetheless trains and performs. The rise was meteoric. On the 2019 Egyptian Nationwide Championships, a 11-year-old Hana swept the Beneath-12, Beneath-15, Beneath-18 and the senior singles titles.
“My household, my coaches, my psychological coach, my nutritionist, my health coach…all of them work collectively to make it simpler for me to do higher,” she stated. “They’ve at all times been supporting me and giving me one of the best atmosphere to be who I’m, and hopefully be higher.”
Hana laughs about her lonely life and never having too many pals outdoors her desk tennis circle. She is in school 10, and despite the fact that her mom desires her to cease fretting about research and focus solely on the game, Hana doesn’t need to quit on teachers. “I attempt to be good at every part I do,” she stated.
For her age, that’s some stress to go together with eyeballs aplenty. It does get to the teenager at instances, she stated. Like final month, after “placing in hours and hours in observe and in addition learning concurrently”, she misplaced within the quarter-finals of a match in Tunisia.
“I assumed, all this heartbreak, for what? I am working so onerous, for what? I’ve to place one thing extra, however I do not know what extra I may do,” Hana stated. “However then we sat with all of the coaches, and every one informed me the negatives. There may be nonetheless lots to work on, however we tackled a number of issues over the previous couple of weeks. And now I really feel higher that my onerous work will repay.”