How Tanvi Sharma became Junior World Championship finalist: No phone at night, no outside food, REM sleep monitored, and intense hard work

Seventeen years since Saina Nehwal won the Junior title at Pune in 2008, Tanvi who bears a striking resemblance to Nehwal’s high toss serve, the round the head occasional smashes and the hairdo even, managed an encore. Nehwal had beaten Chinese Shixian Wang in the 2008 semis. Tanvi cleaned up China’s last remaining challenger Liu Si Ya 15-11, 15-9 at Guwahati and comfortably marched into the final. Expect a crackling contest when top-seeded Tanvi plays second seed, Anyapat Phichitpreechasak, of Thailand.

But the Tanvi Sharma story goes further back than the regimented last two months at Guwahati, when even ordering in outside food was stopped, and her order-packages were politely returned from the National Centre of Excellence gates. Much before the A/C in the massive arena was turned on 15 hours x 7 days, Tanvi and others got accustomed to the drift in training. The Tanvi tale begins when at age 8, while playing against sister Radhika, the younger one realised she could play the sorcerer’s drop disguises and beat much older opponents. The two sisters were trained by mother Meena, but what gift Tanvi had, wasn’t in any coaching manuals that the mother had pored over.

Tanvi Sharma celebrating after confirming her finals spot at the YONEX SUNRISE BWF World Junior Championships 2025. (Badminton Photo)

Twice in her semifinal against the slam-banging Chinese, who had beaten compatriot Vennala Kalagotla at the Asian Juniors in July, Tanvi played a couple of deceptive backhand returns from the net, that are reminiscent of an older ‘Indian style’ of play. Both Nehwal and PV Sindhu started out as power players. But Tanvi – despite the punch she has in her strokes and can adequately smack to the back court – boasts of wristy deception that makes old-timers nostalgic, of Prakash Padukone’s half-smashes, and Gopichand’s netgame that boggled Chinese at All England.

While she comfortably led Si Ya 11-7 and 11-4 in both sets, what stood out was the overhead deception where her tosses and drops come out, with the same action. Tanvi’s forehand slice-drops are reel-worthy and fetched the winners, as the Chinese was severely tested on her forecourt lunge. But it’s how she constructs points, in an all-court game – neither too defensive, nor needlessly attacking that makes the youngster from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur, special.

It will be selling her talent short to call that game the ‘next Sindhu or Saina’ when she’s clearly headed towards the Tai Tzu-ying realm of shotmaking. Smooth footwork, and fluent strokes, compulsive wrist-wizardry on drops, changing of direction and an easy understanding of court craft, India is readying for a calm talent who looks like she’s enjoying badminton, even if the stinging smashes take a lot out of her shoulder. But there’s four different variations on the cross hit, and she can taunt and torment on the lines and to the corners, with a stern word from coach Park Tae-sang who won’t allow her to spray her smashes wide, twice in a row.

But strict instructions had gone out from Gopichand, under whom she trained once, and BAI secretary and former coach Sanjay Mishra, to not tweak around with Tanvi’s natural game, or change its essence. “We told coaches at Guwahati to work around what her very ‘Indian’ style is. Just bring in accuracy. Sometimes coaches try to change styles and the players are finished. We told them to keep it natural,” Mishra recalls.

In the semis, Tanvi sauntered to 11-4, and as soon as she got too ambitious playing the lines, Park stepped in. “I was very comfortable and was playing the shuttle inside. But in the second game I was leading 12-4, and started playing outside. I wanted to finish with one stroke. But my coach told me to play inside. Don’t go for lines,” she said later.

The other disciplining needed was a result of her botched semis at Asian Juniors that cost her a final, losing to another Chinese. Tanvi can come under pressure when she leads, but on Saturday she was told to treat the 15-point set as 5 tiny matches of 3 points each. “They tend to relax after a lead. But the orders are to win 3-0 or 3-2 five times and get to 15. We can’t afford to lose from winning positions,” Mishra said of guarding against profligacy.

In the finals, Tanvi runs into one of Thailand’s finest of the next generation, who plays with the tempo and trickery of Ratchanok Intanon. Anyapat Phichitpreechasak matches Tanvi in deceptive skills and pace manipulation and is hard to throw off unlike the Chinese.

But there’s history to be made, and an Indian style to be properly unfurled, where no one save Tanvi knows what shot she will summon next. Sunday promises a guessing game, though the US Open finalist in seniors knows, in the muggle world, all magic comes on the back of grit.