CHENNAI: Manush Shah has had a brilliant 2025. It was the breakthrough of sorts. He has seen himself grow in other formats (men's singles, doubles and team event). But the landmark moment of that year, and possibly his career, is when he and his mixed doubles' partner Diya Chitale appeared in the WTT finals in Hong Kong. This was the first time an Indian pair managed to break through to the top 8 and qualify to the season-ending showpiece.
This year, he put another feather to his cap, winning his home WTT event — the WTT Feeder in Vadodara earlier this year. As he continues to play all four categories in tournaments, he has to manage his rankings both in and out of India for them. "Honestly, that's the most difficult part of my journey at the moment because I have to also focus domestically and internationally and when I play a international tournament, I normally have three events (Men's Singles, Doubles and Mixed doubles) to look up to," he told this daily.
Going into this year, where he gets to defend his Asian Games bronze title, Manush says he is little relaxed with the singles because of the preparation. "Since I practise a lot of time alone,I am less worried about it. At the same time mixed doubles and men doubles, I want to push myself even more that we are already top eight in the world and I think in both the events, we can go a lot further step by step," he added. He is conscious of his multi-pronged efforts, as he believes that he needs to make most of his "prime years"
"I am pushing a lot. These are my prime years of my career and I want to make the most out of it."
That way, physical fitness is something is on top of his priority list.
So physical preparation would be something that is really tough for me. I am doing pretty well but I need to do even better to perform at a better level. That is my goal and I'm also constantly working with my physio and Strength & Conditioning coach.
"The recovery will play a very important role for me. I cannot get injured and this is something that really I am taking care of," he explained.
While he tries to hold all of them at once, the 25-year-old believes that he is in peak years and has to get better in every department.
"I need to be at my peak in most of the tournaments because these are the tournaments which help us gain the momentum and get the world ranking points which ultimately will be the world ranking.
Coming to Chennai, he would be hoping to put a better display, after getting knocked out in the round of 32 in last year's edition. Going ahead, Manush said he has discussed with India Table tennis coach Massimo Costantini on his calendar. "The WTT calendar and also the preparation calendar. So, yeah, it's more or less already prepared. We have also discussed with the head coach Massimo how do we take it forward and what plans we need to execute in order to have the best ranking and the best seeding possible before the start of Asian Games and then the preparation will come into the phase where we want to peak at the Asian Games," he signed off.