Like most players, Jha is fascinated with spin. Topspin, sidespin, backspin. This is what separates skilled table tennis players from the just-knock-it-back crowd one might encounter at Susan Sarandon’s Ping-Pong social club in Manhattan or, perhaps, at recess. Spin is everything in table tennis, whether it is controlling a point with an impossibly whipping serve or looping a return from several feet behind the table. Spin is what Jha began learning shortly after taking up the game when he was 5 (his parents often played with his sister), and it is what elevated him in the eighth grade, when he dominated his classmates throughout the Ping-Pong unit of his school’s physical education class.

Spin is the reason he is here.

One recent morning, Jha arrived at the Halmstad Arena just after 8:30. Some junior players were already practicing at a few of the 19 tables in the room (sparring, in the vernacular), but Jha went to the opposite end and began a series of physical training exercises designed to stretch and strengthen his legs and enhance his agility and reactions. For nearly an hour, he did not touch his paddle.

His trainer, Douglas Jakobsen, is the son of Mikael Andersson, a longtime official in world table tennis who met Jha four years ago at a youth tournament in Austria. Andersson was intrigued by Jha, who had been working with a German coach, Stefan Feth, who also works with the American national team. Andersson developed a relationship with Jha and his family, and was the linchpin in persuading Jha to move to Europe.

To Andersson, Sweden, which has a strong table tennis history that includes Jan-Ove Waldner — viewed by many as the greatest player in history — was the only place where Jha could properly accelerate his development.