“Sammy Speaks” is a 7 part blog series with South Asian Games Gold Medalist – Sathwika Sama. Over the course of the next seven weeks, Sathwika will share details of her journey/experiences in the international tennis circuit
Other articles in the “Sammy Speaks” series can be found below –
Episode 1 – Stay Indoors, Train Indoors
Episode 2 – Recovery
Episode 3 – Technology In Tennis
Episode 4 – The Future(s)
Episode 5 – Media & Sponsorship
Episode 6 – Dissecting A Champion
ln this final episode, I would like to start by confessing my love for India. It is a place that has a genuine smile on even the poorest people’s faces and a place that I am grateful to call home. My best memories are of playing for India and I hope that I can keep the tri-colour flying high for a long period of time.
We have lots of knowledgeable people in India. However, in sports, it is very important for knowledge to be objective and not subjective. Tennis is a game of confidence and self-belief and it doesn’t help me if a palm reader tells me I have a bad phase till 2022. Going by recent trends, it does not help me if the face reader explains to me how my Jupiter and Saturn planets are not aligned. These things might be true but are completely irrelevant for any athlete.
My point is simple. Firstly, for most of India, whose family have spent their entire life believing in the almighty, why do we need middle men to trust when our belief seems to be so powerful and omnipotent? Secondly and more importantly, whatever any knowledgeable sooth-sayer has said about Rafael Nadal- He still went on to win the French open a record 12 times. Whatever people have said about Roger, he still wins Wimbledon every second year and whatever our aura readers say about Serena – she is still the GOAT. As a rule, I have learnt to believe in hard work to the maximum as I can hold myself accountable in the future. This whole belief in the pundits builds laziness as if I believe in all this and waste my time idling around, the sporting population which puts in the hard yards is going to be racing ahead of me within no time.
Since this is my last episode, I wanted to leave you guys thinking about the thought that bothers me – somewhere deep down, I think our nation believes that everything we do is 99 percent luck and 1 percent attitude. At the age of 20, I want to defy and challenge each and every one of these people and say they are wrong – I want to lead my life with the belief that my success is 99 percent attitude and 1 percent luck as that will give me much more happiness.
I hope you all enjoyed my opinions. Sammy will be back soon.
Until then, keep smiling as the sun will shine tomorrow. 😊
Have a safe weekend.
Sathwika Sama
