A number of years in the past, Yash Chaurasia—now a nationally ranked tennis participant—was repeatedly faltering in tournaments regardless of rigorous coaching.
From a distance, his father Vikas Chaurasia was watching his son’s struggles—in truth, he was equally struggling as a father or mother who didn’t know what else he might do to assist his baby excel on the enjoying discipline.
“Yash was doing all the things by the e-book—early mornings, infinite drills, non-public teaching. However when match day got here, it felt like ranging from zero. The hole between coaching and efficiency haunted me as a father greater than anything,” says Chaurasia.
Over time, he realised that this wasn’t taking place attributable to lack of effort, but it surely was as a result of one thing large was lacking from his son’s routine: aggressive match observe. What he wanted was a ‘sparring companion’ who might maintain him on his toes and assist him good his match consciousness.
In the meantime, Chaurasia’s daughter, Taanisha, now a state-level badminton participant, too confronted comparable challenges. As did many Indians aspiring to turn out to be skilled gamers, particularly in racquet sports activities.
This perception that common observe doesn’t essentially put together athletes for actual competitors sparked the concept for Sparring Participant in Chaurasia.
New Delhi-based Sparring Participant is a match-play platform that connects junior athletes with skilled senior gamers for structured sparring periods, designed to copy aggressive real-match situations.
Whereas Chaurasia had no reference to skilled sports activities, he had an observer’s readability—as a 3rd individual watching sports activities coaching from the sidelines.
“What I noticed many times was how our youngsters have been being educated to hit the shuttle or the ball, however to not suppose or react underneath match stress. You may’t simulate that in a drill. You want competitors. You want resistance,” says Chaurasia, who had earlier labored within the company world, with stints at Tata Motors and 4 Factors by Sheraton, the place he served because the CFO.
He continues, “Regardless of what number of hours you place in, should you’re all the time enjoying the identical 4 individuals in your academy, your development plateaus. What was lacking was unpredictability, psychological noise, and pace-shifting of actual matches. These are issues that solely come when you find yourself sparring with somebody higher, or completely different.”
That is the lacking hyperlink that Sparring Participant goals to fill.
The way it works
Chaurasia launched the sports-tech platform in 2022 with Rs 44 lakh from his private financial savings. The sports-tech startup connects junior gamers with top-ranked gamers in and round their location and facilitates paid ‘sparring periods’ at impartial venues corresponding to golf equipment, academies, and personal courts. Classes may be booked by way of Sparring Participant’s web site.
<determine class="picture embed" contenteditable="false" data-id="576734" data-url=" data-alt="Sparring Participant" data-caption="
Yash Chaurasia, Co-founder, Sparring Participant
” model=”float: left; margin-right: 20px; width:50%; top:auto” align=”heart”> Yash Chaurasia, Co-founder, Sparring Participant
For instance, an U-16 tennis participant from Gurgaon making ready for an AITA (All India Tennis Affiliation) national-level match in Delhi not too long ago booked three sparring periods with Nitin Sinha, an ATP participant, ranked among the many top-30 in India.
Via these periods, which have been held at a personal court docket in South Delhi, the junior participant gained worthwhile insights into tempo variation, shot patterns, and adapting to aggressive baseliners—nuances which are not often taught in common drills.
In contrast to informal play, sparring includes scoring, strain, and tactical play.
Senior gamers—normally these inside the high 100 nationwide rating and with expertise within the skilled circuits of ATP (Affiliation of Tennis Professionals)/WTA (Ladies’s Tennis Affiliation)/BWF (Badminton World Federation), or within the nationwide circuit—act as sparring companions.
Junior gamers vary from school-level athletes to state and nationwide rivals searching for match toughness.
“Match expertise can’t be faked,” says Chaurasia. “You must earn it by being on court docket, level after level, underneath strain. And if tournaments come solely as soon as each two months, how do you keep match-ready? That’s the place sparring matches in. It offers you sport mileage.”
The platform at present lists over 140 verified sparring companions, together with names corresponding to B Sai Praneeth, Sourabh Verma, MR Arjun in badminton, and Vishnu Vardhan, Nitin Sinha, and Siddhant Banthia in tennis. It has facilitated 2,900 hours of sparring throughout 19 Indian cities, together with Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune and supported 35 junior athletes to date.
The sparring periods are usually priced between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 per hour, relying on the senior participant’s rating and expertise, the venue, and the length and depth of the session.
Other than India, Sparring Participant additionally presents sparring companions in Austria, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), United States, Europe (together with Spain and different European nations).
From the start, Chaurasia made the aware resolution to not monetise athlete connections by way of commissions.
“This platform was born out of a private downside, not a enterprise mannequin. The second you begin taking a lower, you create doubt: Is that this connection about what the athlete wants, or what the platform earns? That’s a line we didn’t need to cross.
“It’s about ensuring expertise doesn’t drop off the map simply because there’s nobody to coach with, or no coach accessible on match day.”
Sparring Participant’s income comes from service contracts with sporting federations.
Going world
Other than facilitating sparring periods in these nations, the startup has additionally signed service contracts with world sporting federations.
In late 2022, Chaurasia started reaching out to sports activities federations overseas. The primary main breakthrough got here from Spain—the nation’s nationwide badminton federation signed a long-term settlement with Sparring Participant, whereby athletes listed on the platform help the coaching of senior professionals from Spain, together with Carolina Marin, former world number one and Olympic gold medallist.
“This was a second of validation. When a rustic like Spain trusts a small Indian platform to help their high gamers, it tells you one thing: we’ve got touched an actual nerve in world sport,” says Chaurasia.
Since then, Italy, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Colombia, and China have come on board; listed gamers on the Sparring Participant platform journey to those nations for sparring. A contract with Denmark, protecting over 200 golf equipment, is within the last levels.
For these B2B service contracts, the platform fees a fee of about 9%.
These usually are not mere listings however service contracts, says Chaurasia—federations pay Sparring Participant to deploy sparring companions, present non permanent coaches throughout match days, and facilitate athlete exchanges.
Sparring Participant is operated by a globally distributed workforce. Chaurasia oversees operations and partnerships, whereas his son Yash, now an ATP-ranked participant, manages tennis onboarding. Former India no. 1 Saurabh Sharma leads badminton onboarding in India. Yogendran Krishnan, coach of the Malaysian badminton girls’s singles workforce, leads operations in Southeast Asia, whereas Sekou Bangoura, an ATP-ranked participant, builds partnerships and verifies senior athletes in Europe and america.
Tapping into untapped potential
The Worldwide Tennis Federation estimates India’s tennis inhabitants to be 3.4 million gamers, roughly 10% of Asia’s participant base, whereas the Badminton Affiliation of India had recorded 9,851 registered gamers as of June 2025.
Whereas tennis and badminton are increasing in India, alternatives are nonetheless concentrated within the metros. The smaller cities of India are largely underserved, and Sparring Participant desires to handle this concern.
“We get inquiries from locations like Bhopal, Vizag, and Ranchi. However until we’ve got verified sparring companions there, we can’t provide worth. That’s what we’re fixing now,” says Chaurasia.
The corporate is onboarding 1,000 extra senior athletes, together with former professionals from the district and state ranges.
And it’s not simply aggressive juniors who’re reserving periods on the platform. Adults enjoying tennis and badminton as a type of recreation and train are additionally reserving sparring periods.
“Numerous customers usually are not chasing medals. They only need to really feel challenged, to play towards somebody higher. That’s equally legitimate. Sport is about steady stretch,” notes Chaurasia.
.thumbnailWrapper{
width:6.62rem !necessary;
}
.alsoReadTitleImage{
min-width: 81px !necessary;
min-height: 81px !necessary;
}
.alsoReadMainTitleText{
font-size: 14px !necessary;
line-height: 20px !necessary;
}
.alsoReadHeadText{
font-size: 24px !necessary;
line-height: 20px !necessary;
}
}
Past match play
Sparring Participant has added different providers corresponding to non permanent match-side teaching, whereby dad and mom can e-book skilled freelance coaches for his or her kids throughout tournaments for about Rs 1,000 per match.
The platform additionally runs a mentorship initiative ‘Discuss with Champions’ which presents video consultations with athletes corresponding to Anand Pawar, Sai Praneeth, MR Arjun, and worldwide coaches.
“We’re not making an attempt to exchange full-time coaches. We’re providing plug-ins—fast, well timed, dependable help that matches right into a participant’s journey,” says Chaurasia.
The startup helps sporting academies recruit worldwide coaches, and has already facilitated placements for 2 Indian coaches in China and Europe.
Lengthy-term imaginative and prescient
The long-term imaginative and prescient of Sparring Participant is to “democratise entry to match play”.
“Proper now, in case you are severe about your sport, you progress to a metro and hope to seek out the proper academy. We need to reverse that. With digital instruments and verified networks, sparring can come to the participant,” says Chaurasia.
The startup can also be wanting so as to add different sports activities corresponding to desk tennis, squash, and pickleball onto its platform within the subsequent couple of years.
Sparring Participant isn’t positioning itself as a court-booking app or a coach discovery service.
“We’re not simply constructing listings,” insists Chaurasia. “We’re constructing rhythm—the rhythm of play, of strain, of preparation. That’s what we felt was lacking, and that’s what we’re bringing.”
Edited by Swetha Kannan
