They grow up so fast. It seems like only yesterday when Kanak Jha dethroned reigning US men's singles champion Yijun Feng to claim his first national titles. Only 16 years old at the time, Jha showed veteran toughness in winning the last three games of the match, including the last seven points after trailing 9-4 in game seven. Back in the innocent days of 2016, Jha was the portrait of ping-pong precocity. Not only was he the youngest national champion since a 15-year-old Michael Landers set the all-time mark in 2009, Jha was also the youngest American to qualify for the Rio Olympics. Since then, Jha has further separated himself from the domestic field, winning four straight national championships and counting. Lacking any true domestic competition, he stays sharp playing in the extremely competitive German leagues. Already qualified for the Tokyo 2000 Olympics, Jha's training has been frozen in carbonite like the rest of the sporting world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A new weekly tournament series for German league players, however, is offering a glimmer of hope. Jha currently finds himself seeded second at the Düsseldorf Masters. Germany's Timo Boll, the winner of last week's inaugural event, is busy competing in the Bundesliga playoffs this week, leaving his countryman Dimitrij Ovtcharov the default top seed. Now, less than two weeks from his twentieth birthday, Jha finds himself less the youthful challenger and more the youthfully challenged. The field is stacked with talented Teutonic teens, including Felix Köhler, Tobias Sältzer and 2019 Europe Youth Top 10 champion Kay Stumper. Jha's first match is against Tayler Fox, currently Germany's #1-rated cadet (i.e. under 15) player. Not currently rated among the big kids, the lanky right-handed attacker's previous highest senior world ranking was #1,064. Surely, Fox will be motivated to score a signature win against the world #27 Kanak Jha. Of course, Jha did not rise to his lofty world ranking by taking anyone lightly. Just as he knows Fox will be gunning to upset him, Jha knows he must stay focused and motivated if he is to pull a similar stunt against the veteran Ovtcharov in Tuesday's finals. Whatever the outcome, just remember to cherish each moment as they run and play and exult in the unfettered glory of their youth. Blink and you'll miss it.

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