At the ongoing Pro Tennis League Season 4 at the RK Khanna Tennis Stadium in New Delhi, one of the star attractions is 29-year-old Prithvi Sekhar, who is playing for Bangalore Challengers. The veteran tennis star, who started playing at the age of 8, has competed across three editions of the Defalympics since 2013.
Prithvi, won his first medal at the Defalympics in 2017, as he claimed a mixed doubles Bronze medal with Jafreen Shaik. At the 2022 Defalympics in Brazil, Prithvi won a Singles Bronze medal apart from Men’s Doubles Silver medal and a Mixed Doubles Bronze medal.
Speaking on his journey, he said, “The win at the first Defalympics gave me immense joy and I was really proud to be a part of the Indian team. The first Defalympics was not great for me in terms of performance but it taught me a lot about how to compete with top players which helped in my second and third Defalympics where I was able to win medals for the country and make the country proud despite challenges,” he said.
Prithvi further went on to explain the difficulties faced by an athlete while competing at the Defalympics and what makes it a challenging tournament.
“In Defalympics, you cannot wear a hearing aid which makes it a lot more difficult to perform. Without the hearing aid, you can only look towards the ball but you cannot hear anything. So, the line umpire and side umpire show their decisions with their hand movements which can be a bit distracting,” he said.
Prithvi expressed happiness about getting a chance to compete alongside players such as Ramkumar Ramanathan at the Pro Tennis League but expressed a desire for more deaf players to get a chance to compete in such top-level leagues in the country.
