Finn, who’ll make his Olympic debut at the Paris Games, laughed openly at the memory, but still involuntarily winces while speaking about being zapped and stung by balls that seemed to rocket towards him at 100 km/h.

“The robot was in the attic of our home years before I was born,” Finn, who competed at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, said.

“My grandpa used to play and had it at his house, but my father took it to our place a few years before I was born. It was kept in the upstairs attic where we had a table, and when I started playing [at six] I’d go up there, turn the robot on and it spat the balls out really fast - fast enough to leave bruises.

“There was one session when I was hit 10 to 15 times. That must have been the time when it shot a ball so fast it got stuck in my mouth! I remember crying because the ball was stuck, yeah, I couldn’t get it out. That robot traumatised me!”

Not badly enough, though, to make Finn give up table tennis, a sport he became enchanted with when he watched his father, Don, play at his local club in Melbourne.

“I loved the competitiveness of it all when I was young. When I watched my dad play, I saw that table tennis wasn’t only competitive, but that it looked as though he was having a lot of fun.”

For the 19-year-old, whose rapid rise through the ranks has already seen him don his country’s colours at numerous international events, life on the road has exposed him to much more than his sport’s next generation of superstars.

“I travel a lot with [Olympic teammate] Nick Lum, and I remember how surprised we were to see snow for the first time,” he said. “But, travel has taught me – and Nick, as well – a lot about independence.”

Finn has spent plenty of time in Germany, which includes a long stint at the famed Liebherr Masters College in Ochsenhausen, near Munich. The college accepts only the best of the best, and has been compared to the world-renowned Tennis Academy founded in Florida by Nick Bollettieri in 1978, which produced the likes of Andre Agassi and Maria Sharapova.

Finn credits this time for helping to take his game – which he describes as ‘fast, calculating, and flashy’ – to another level. And the Simon Gerada-coached player, vowed to approach his Olympic campaign with a sense of fearlessness.

“I want to give it my best shot, have a crack and see what damage I can do,” he enthused. 

“I’m excited by the whole experience and the matches we’re about to play. This is a chance for [me and fellow 19-year-olds Nick Lunn and Hwan Bae] to find our identity on the international stage and to showcase our skills.”

Daniel Lane