Timo Boll runner-up in German Athlete of the Year Poll

Timo Boll came second in the race for Germany's athlete of the year. Sebastian Vettel topped the poll in which 1,300 journalists participated. The event was held at the ZDF Gala evening in Kuhaus, Baden Baden. Golfer Martin Kaymer finished third.

Timo Boll's achievements:

• Led Germany to the Silver medal at the Liebherr World Team Championships at Moscow
• Third at Liebherr Men's World Cup
• Three titles at European Championships (Men's singles, Men's Doubles and Team)
• Men's Singles winner at German Open, Europe Top 12, Volkswagen Cup
• Main player at Borussia Dusseldorf in Bundesliga. Won German Cup and European Champions League

USATT Coach of the year

The following coaches have been nominated for the Coach of the year to the U.S. Olympic Committee's Coach of the Year selection process.

National Team COY - Lily Yip (Current Women's Jr. National Team Coach) - Warren, NJ
Development COY - Sean O'Neill - Portland, OR
Paralympic COY - Daniel Rutenberg - Frisco, TX

USATT new Membership Rates Effective April 1, 2011

The following are the new USATT Membership Rates effective April 2011:

Adult one-year membership $ 49
Adult three-year membership $130
Collegiate one-year membership $ 25
Junior one-year membership $ 25
Junior three-year membership $ 60
Household one-year membership $ 90
Household three-year membership $250
Millennium Life membership $1,000
Foreign one-year membership $ 75

China to train foreign Table Tennis players

Liu Guoliang and Shi Zhihao will head the coaching team that will train foreign players at the Shanghai Table Tennis Academy. China has been criticized for dominating Table Tennis at the World level.

The training will include Table Tennis theory and practice based on the Chinese methods.

Players who train at the academy will have to work hard. It may entail spending 7 hours of hard sweat and toil for around 6 days a week. The sessions are expected to start from next September and the academy has the strong backing of the Shanghai government.

Flash news: Sathiyan wins at Vadodara

G Sathiyan created a major upset by beating Soumyadeep Roy to win the Central Zone national ranking tournament at Vadodara 4-2.

Details awaited.

Professional Indian Table Tennis Players

It is interesting to note that there is a growing trend of Table Tennis players from India competing in League matches in foreign countries. For example, Sharath Kamal plays in the elite German Bundesliga. Zubin Kumar and Pathik Mehta play in the Spanish leagues. Soumyajit Ghosh, G Sathiyan, and Harmeet Desai are spending extended periods of time training in Sweden. Some other players spent time training in China. Many other players have played different leagues at various times.

Right now, most of these players do not earn lucrative sums of money, but there is some hope from this year. The ITTF has announced aggressive plans for the Pro Tour with handsome prize money. If the game gets more popular, there is a chance that the leagues will play more money to the participants. This is indeed a good trend.

Do you know of any other professional players?

Flash news - Arnab Adhikari wins Junior Boy's crown at Baroda

Arnab Adhikari claimed another top victim to emerge champion in the Junior Boy's event at the Central Zone Table Tennis championship at Baroda.

Arnab won 4-1 against Sudhanshu Grover. Earlier, Arnab had scripted a major upset over Abhishek Yadav.

How to play against pips both sides players (long and short)

Many times, in tournament play, you may have faced irritation in playing against a player who has pips out on both sides. A popular combination is long pips on the backhand and short pips to finish off rallies on the forehand. We will consider classical long pips with maximum effect (hence minimum sponge and so on).

We can deal with the short pips first. Many good players get confused even to handle the short pips side in matches. The reason is that the prospect of facing a very strong both sides pips player is mentally daunting for those who fear such a combination or have faced defeat at some point in their career.

In case of short pips, you need to remember that this rubber is just designed to neutralize spin. So, if you deliver a service with good spin, the short pips simply neutralizes it. The same holds true for backspin, topspin or sidespin. The rubber simply absorbs the opponent's spin.

So there are just a couple of things to remember while playing against the short pips side. When you play deep underspin or deep topspin or a spin service, expect a normal return almost like a float. You can almost play normally against this side if you understand the basics of facing this kind of rubber.

The long pips side could be a bit trickier, but again if you understand the logic behind the functioning of the rubber, it may be easier to tackle it. Some popular long pips rubbers are Butterfly Feint, Dr Neubauer Monster Classic, DHS C7, Stiga Destroyer, TSP Curl and so on.

The grid density, the aspect ratio are advanced concepts that are out of the scope of this article. Once you understand the starting concepts, you can extrapolate and understand the advanced too.

The most important thing to note against long pips is that the type of spin you play against it is reversed back to you. So, topspin comes back to you as underspin, underspin comes back as topspin. Sidespins are returned as complex wobbles due to the ball fighting opposite forces. When you play a topspin, you are mostly forced to play a push on the next ball since the underspin is heavy, especially against spinny loops.

When you play a push, the ball comes back as topspin and many players hit the ball out thinking that what they see is just a push (it is topspin). Now, when you face a player who has short pips on the forehand and long pips on the forehand, keep your body balanced always and be ready for unexpected ball movement. The easiest strategy is to play normally on the forehand and concentrate on that side most of the time. When you do hit a topspin on the backhand, expect heavy underspin and push the next ball, get into position and only then hit the next ball.

Doordarshan Live Telecast of matches

Doordarshan is telecasting the Central Zone TT matches live. The next scheduled telecast is at 3 PM (25th December).

The matches that are expected to be shown are Senior section Main draw 1st round.

Soumyadeep, Mouma Top seeds at Vadodara Central Zone TT Nationals

Soumyadeep Roy and Mouma Das are the top seeds in the Men's and Women's Singles respectively at the Central Zone Table Tennis National level tournament at Vadodara. G Sathiyan and Divya Deshpande are the highest seeds in the Youth Boys and Girls sections.

The Central Zone event is the last zonal event before the Nationals at Kolkata and hence some keen competition is expected. Most of the matches from the quarterfinal onwards in the Men's event are expected to be very competitive.

Sourav, Mouma win North Zone Ranking Table Tennis titles

Sourav Chakravarthy and Mouma Das won the North Zone Ranking Table Tennis tournament held at New Delhi. In the finals, they beat Soumyajit Ghosh and Mamta Prabhu respectively, but in contrasting styles.

While Sourav coasted to a 4-2 win over the relatively inexperienced Soumyajit, Mouma held her nerve and beat back Mamta's challenge 4-3.

Harmeet Desai asserted his growing stature on the domestic scene beating G Sathiyan in the Youth Boy's finals. Pooja Sahasrabudhe beat Divya Deshpande in a daring comeback from 3-1 down.

Zubin stars in Spanish League

Zubin (Center) in an earlier photo

Zubin Kumar played a stellar role in his team's last two encounters in the Spanish league. Zubin won all his four matches to star in Tramuntana Figueres's wins over C N Mataro Quadis and Caja De Burgos.

Zubin beat Xavier Peral and Jordi Jason Ramos of C N Mataro Quadis on 11th December. In the last league encounter Zubin beat Ruben Dehesa and Ferenc Horvath of Caja De Burgos. Zubin's win percentage was an astounding 81% for the year!

With this, Tramuntana leaped to the top spot in the Men's Honor division.

Sharath ends German League season on a high

Sharath Kamal ended his first season in the Premium division of the German league table tennis on a high by winning both his matches against the top team of the league, Borussia Dusseldorf. However, Sharath's team mates at TSV Grafelfing could not grab the other rubber required to clinch the tie.
TSV Grafelfing finished 9th in the league. The astounding part of the achievement by Sharath was that he won 9 out of the 10 matches that his team managed to win against their top notch achievements. The only other win was in the doubles by Nico Christian and Gabriel Stephan.

Sharath gives Olympic Champ a fright

Sharath Kamal gave 2004 Olympic champion, Ryu Seung Min by extending him to the full 7 game distance before losing out narrowly 3-11,9-11,11-1,11-7,9-11,12-10, and 8-11 at the annual Pro Tour Grand Table Tennis finals.


Meanwhile, seeds continued to tumble. Top seed Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus lost to Jun Mizutani of Japan 2-4 in the semi-finals. The second seed, Ovtcharov had already lost in the very first round to Bastian Steger. Steger, continued his spectacular run and is playing Jun Mizutani in the finals. At the moment of writing this article, Jun is leading 2-1 in games.
(Update: Jun won the Grand finals beating Steger of Germany in the finals.)

Sharath advances to the Quarterfinals

India's A Sharath Kamal beat Lee Sang Su of the host country in a thrilling match (4-3) to advance to the Quarter finals of the year ending Pro Tour Grand Finals tournament.

In a cliff-hanger of a match which went down to the wire, Sharath beat Lee Sang 11-13,11-9,5-11,11-9,11-9,8-11,15-13. Sharath now plays 2004 Olympic Champion, Ryu Seung Min.


The sensation of the day was the loss of the No. 2 seed Ovtcharov Dimitrij who lost to his countryman Bastian Steger in the first round.

A R Navaneeth wins Karnataka State Championships

~~ Vikramadithya Shivaram

Favorite Navaneeth bagged the Karnataka State Champion title beating Anirban Tarafdar 4-2.
Promising Shreyal Telang, fresh from his victory at the West Zone Nationals at Nagpur, beat experienced Sagayaraj to reach the semi-finals. Aditya Mahagaokar who is doing his advanced studies at Bengaluru was the other semi-finalist.

Other Results:

Semifinals
Anirban Tarafdar beat Shreyal Telang 4-1
Navaneeth beat Aditya Mahagaonkar 4-0

Quarter finals:
Anirban beat Jaideep Das 4-1
Shreyal beat Sagayraj 4-3
Aditya Mahagaonkar beat Yeshwanth 4-2
Navaneeth beat Sunand Vasan 4-1

Sharath and Subhajit beaten at the Pro Tour Grand finals

Commonwealth gold medalists Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha faced the wrath of the Commonwealth finalists. The lost 0-4 to GAO Ning and YANG Zi 8-11,1-11,3-11,7-11 in the first round of the Pro Tour Grand Finals.

Sharath's hopes are still alive in the tough Singles competition where he faces Lee Sang Su of Korea in the first round today.

Famous Uttar Pradesh Table Tennis Players

Some popular Table Tennis names in Uttar Pradesh.

Vivek Kohli
Anshul Garg
Anil Sen
Zabarjeet Singh
Atin Rastogi
Parag Agarwal
Kaushik-de-Sarkar
Rahul Prakash
Sanjeev  Pathak
Sanjeev Kapoor
S.P. Singh
Sandeep  Gupta 

Top Table Tennis Players of Gujarat

Top Men's Players of Gujarat

Harmeet Desai SRT
Pathik Mehta BVN
Jignesh Jaiswal BVN
Dharmaraj Rana BVN
Hardik Bhatt BVN
Sujay Chaturvedi RJT
Ravi Joshi BVN
Malay Parikh BRD
Jalay Mehta BRD
Mahipal Gohil BVN
Jagdish Makwana BVN
Vijay Vala BVN
Mihir Dave AHM
Dev Kothari BVM

Pathik Mehta's results at the Spanish League

03-10-2010	Pathik	GABRIEL GARCIA	LA ZUBIA GILAUTO	3-0
03-10-2010	Pathik	RAN WANG	LA ZUBIA GILAUTO	1-3
17-10-2010	Pathik	LUCA HAHN	CD SAN JAVIER TMVB	3-1
17-10-2010	Pathik	ISMAEL FLAMES	CD SAN JAVIER TMVB	3-0
07-11-2010	Pathik	EMILIO ANTONIO GARCIA	TM EXTREMADURA ALMENDRALEJO	3-1
07-11-2010	Pathik	PEREZ JUAN BAUTISTA	TM EXTREMADURA ALMENDRALEJO	3-0
13-11-2010	Pathik	JUAN GOMEZ	CTM HISPALIS	3-2
13-11-2010	Pathik	JOSE MANUEL GOMEZ	CTM HISPALIS	3-0
14-11-2010	Pathik	JESUS MARTIN	ERGO JEREZ	3-0
14-11-2010	Pathik	FREE SANCHO	ERGO JEREZ	3-2
21-11-2010	Pathik	ISRAEL RODRIGUEZ	CTM CajaGRANADA	3-0
21-11-2010	Pathik	FRANCISCO JAVIER RAMIREZ	CTM CajaGRANADA	3-0
27-11-2010	Pathik	JESUS RODRIGUEZ	CD CÁRTAMA TM	3-1
27-11-2010	Pathik	GUILLERMO SANCHEZ	CD CÁRTAMA TM	3-2
28-11-2010	Pathik	JOSE MIGUEL RAMIREZ	CAJASUR - PRIEGO TM	2-3
28-11-2010	Pathik	ALEJANDRO CALVO	CAJASUR - PRIEGO TM	3-2
12-12-2010	Pathik	ALEJANDRO PRATS	SANTA CTT EULARIA	3-0
12-12-2010	Pathik	LONG LI YI	SANTA CTT EULARIA	3

Jubin Kumar's performance at the Spanish League

02-10-2010	Jubin	ORIOL MIR	BORGES arithmetic	3-0
02-10-2010	Jubin	DAVID GONZALEZ	BORGES arithmetic	3-0
23-10-2010	Jubin	GUILLERMO MARTINEZ	TABLE TENNIS CD RIVAS	3-0
23-10-2010	Jubin	ALEXANDER SMIRNOV	TABLE TENNIS CD RIVAS	3-2
13-11-2010	Jubin	PEDRO LOPEZ	LEGANES ADTM	3-0
13-11-2010	Jubin	SERGEI Sokolovsky	LEGANES ADTM	3-0
14-11-2010	Jubin	DIAMANDI Gherasim	CENTURY BRUNETE	1-3
14-11-2010	Jubin	EDUARDO GONZALEZ	CENTURY BRUNETE	3-1
21-11-2010	Jubin	CRISTOBAL FERNANDEZ	CLUB DEL MAR	3-0
21-11-2010	Jubin	ZHAO QIANG	CLUB DEL MAR	1-3
27-11-2010	Jubin	JOSE MIGUEL NUT	TM DEFENSE - LA PALMA	3-0
27-11-2010	Jubin	HENRIK ANDERSSON BO ARON	TM DEFENSE - LA PALMA	1-3
11-12-2010	Jubin	XAVIER PEAR	CN MATARO - Quadis	3-2
11-12-2010	Jubin	Yordi JASON RAMOS	CN MATARO - Quadis	3-0

Sharath's good performance at the German League

Sharath is the top player for his club in the Bundesliga. He has made a good start to the season. He missed playing Jan-ove Waldner though.

Here are his results this season:

Beat Jiri Vrablik 3-2
Beat Chu Yan Leung 3-1
Beat Kenji Matsudaira 3-0
Beat Robert Gardos 3-1
Beat Adrian Dodean 3-0
Lost to Adrian Crisan 0-3
Beat Erik Bottroff 3-1
Beat Bin Zhou 3-1
Lost to Keinath Thomas 2-3
Lost to Robert Svensson 2-3
Lost to Wang Xi 1-3
Lost to Bastian Steger 0-3

Table Tennis News Bites - Sharath Kamal Updates

As we know, right now Sharath is playing in the German league for TSV Gräfelfing in the prestigious 1st Division Table Tennis league in Germany.

TSV Gräfelfing currently stand 9th in the league.

Sharath will play two more league matches before he comes to India on the 14th December.

Just to repeat, Sharath has been selected to play the Pro Tour Grand Finale at Seoul from 16th December. Only the World's top 16 players are invited for this event!

Table Tennis News Bites

India finished 10th at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships at Bratislava.

India's promising juniors fought hard before being eliminated by France in the main knock out matches. Earlier, in the league matches, India lost to higher seeds Poland 3-2 after leading 2-0 at one stage.

India beat Egypt and lost to Taipei in the 9-12 position play offs.

Table Tennis news bites

News Bites:
Pooja Sahasrabuddhe won the Women's Singles Title at Maldives in the Golden Jubilee Invitational tournament. She beat Neha Aggarwal of India in the finals.

Aniket Koparkar lost to higher ranked Lennart Wehking in the semi-finals.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The Indian Junior Boy's team reached the elite 1-12 stage in the World Juniors Table Tennis Championships being held at Bratislava. They play France today.

Table Tennis Bug USA

Player Profile: Harmeet Desai

Harmeet has always been ahead of the curve. Winning the National Junior crown at a young age, and also gaining a ranking not only in the Youth section, but also in the Senior (Men's Category)


Harmeet is currently training hard at Sweden for the World Junior Championship to be held at Bratislava (Slovak Republic).

 Name: Harmeet Desai

Date of Birth:19-07-1993

Coaches: Hraday Desai, Peter Karlsson, Bhavani Mukherji, and Massimo Constantini.

Ambition: To win a medal in the Olympic Games.

Achivements: 

• Junior National Champion 09-10
• Bronze Medal in the Asian Junior Championships 2010
• Silver Medal in Singles in Taiyuan Junior Open 2009-2010.

Aniket's sensational performance at West Zone National Ranking Tournament

Pune's own Aniket Koparkar reached the finals of the West Zone National Ranking Tournament at Nagpur. He beat internationals and Bengal players Raj Mondal, Sourav Chakraborty, and Subhajit Saha before he eventually lost to Soumyadeep Roy (also of West Bengal).

This was Aniket's first finals in the Men's singles. With this stupendous show, he moves to joint 4th in the India rankings. If Aniket performs consistently now, his place in the India team is almost a certainity.

Martand Wins State Youth Championship Title

Pune's Martand Biniwale won the prestigious State Championship Table Tennis title at Nanded. Aniket Koparkar won the prestigious Men's Singles State Champion crown.

In the final, he beat Dhiraj Rai 4-2 while Aniket beat seasoned Eric Fernandes also with a similar score, 4-2.

Pune wins State Championship team title after a decade

The Pune district team won the Maharashtra Team title after a decade at the ongoing tournament at Nanded.

Aniket Koparkar, Rohit Chaudhari, Martand Biniwale, Atul Bapat, and Tanay Shinde represented Pune. Madhu Lonare is the coach of the team

Details coming soon.

Indian National Table Tennis circuit

The biggest stretch of the Indian Table Tennis season kicks off with the East Zone National Ranking Table Tennis tournament to be held at Bolpur, West Bengal. The first Zonal tournament was at Bangalore but we had a lull on the domestic circuit with all the focus on the Commonwealth Games.

All nationally ranked players are gearing up for the coming events and are sharpening their skills since they have only one week left for the first event.

Here's what we have in store in the near future:
(Please contact your State association for further details)

National Ranking Table Tennis Championships, 2010 (East Zone)

[ October 27th, 2010 - October 31st, 2010 ]
Bolpur, West Bengal

National Ranking Table Tennis Championships, 2010 (West Zone)
[ November 24th, 2010 - November 28th, 2010 ]
Nagpur, Maharashtra

National Ranking Table Tennis Championships, 2010 (Central Zone)
[ December 06th, 2010 - December 10th, 2010 ]
Gujarat

National Ranking Table Tennis Championships, 2010 (North Zone)
[ December 01st, 2010 - December 05th, 2010 ]
Delhi

Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, 2010
[ January 17th, 2011 - January 13th, 2011 ]
Kolkata, West Bengal

Cadet & Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships
[ January 03rd, 2011 - January 08th, 2011 ]
Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Junior Youth National Table Tennis Championships
[ February 01st, 2011 - February 07th, 2011 ]
Gujarat

Table Tennis Player Profile: Zubin Kumar

Jubin executes his elegant Forehand Topspin

At first glance, you'll never guess that Jubin is a star player. You'll be forgiven for making that grave mistake because of the sheer humility Jubin personifies. 

The moment you see him on the table, he is a different being altogether. Playing with amazing timing and elegance, Jubin steamrolls opponents into the ground. Add to that the fact that he is a left-hander and you can't but admire his game.

Jubin was always in the shadows of his more famous peers until he won the Youth crown. A win over Sharath sent him to another league and his confidence soared. The exposure to international play owing to his consistent domestic performance, meant that Jubin leapt over others that had outshone him earlier.

Jubin's only bitter moment came when he was dropped out of the ongoing Commonwealth games. Many truly felt that he easily deserved to be in the team because he was consistently top ranked the year before. The selectors probably played it safe and went for experience. 

We are pretty sure that Jubin will bounce back with a vengence and move up and higher even faster. He is currently playing in the Spanish league, an experience that will only help him to conquer all that he wants.

Name: Jubin kumar

Date of Birth: 12/02/1987

Club: Tramuntana (Spain)

Coaches/Trainers: Many coaches helped me to improve.

Ambition: To play good and To win medal for country in major tournaments

TT Idol: Jean-philippe Gatien

Major Achievements: 

• Youth National Champion, 
• Inter-Institution Champion in 2009
• Gold medal in SAF games
• Finished 2009-10 season ranked No. 1 in India

TT Player profile: Maitreyee Bailoor

by Vikramadithya Shivaram

 Maitreyee in a photo shoot for the press

Name: Maitreyee Bailoor

Date of Birth: 2 April 1996

TT Club: Belgaum Table Tennis Academy(BTTA)

Coach: Sangam Bailoor (her father)

Idol: Sangam Bailoor

Ambition: To represent India and win Olympic Medal

Achievements:

• 2007 - won a bronze medal at the Cadet Nationals held in Chennai
• Was ranked 10th in the year 2009-2010
• Currently ranked No 1 in Karnataka in women, youth girls and junior girls

Best Win: Over Jagruthi Virmani (Delhi)

Best tournament: Chennai Nationals 2007

Player profile: Uday Athreya

 Uday in a multiball session at his University in Singapore

The humble and somewhat shy Uday is reluctant to be compared to Bona Thomas John (one of Karnataka's great TT players). Bona blossomed relatively late. Who knows what Uday could have achieved if he had a chance to continue playing seriously.


The good news is that he has started training in his University. Although Uday is very clear that he is playing only for fitness, we secretly hope that he goes on to achieve something that he dreamt of earlier in his career.

Date of Birth: 03-12-1986

Club: Winners Choice Sports Foundation

Coaches/Trainers: Vasanth Bharadwaj

TT Idol: Jan Ove Waldner

Ambition: Was to represent India internationally (but he hints that it is on the back burner for now)

Currently pursuing MS in Computer Science at NUS Singapore

Achievements:

• INTER SCHOOL U-19 NATIONAL CHAMPION, U-19 SILVER MEDALIST, U-17 NATIONAL CHAMPION
• 2 TIME ALL INDIA INTERBANK CHAMPION
• Silver medal at the All India inter university Table Tennis championships
• WAS RANKED 5 IN INDIA IN JUNIOR CATEGORY AND 8 IN SUB-JR CATEGORY,
  TEAM BRONZE MEDALLIST IN THE JUNIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2002,
• TEAM GOLD,SILVER AND BRONZE MEDALLIST IN THE INTER-SCHOOL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
• Was ranked No.1 in Karnataka's Junior, Youth and Men's category
• WON THE Karnataka Rajyotsava award and the prestigious Karnataka Olympic Association award for achievements in the field of Table Tennis.

Best Win: Winning U-19 National School Championships

Best Tournament Result: Winner of All India Inter-banks

Player profile: C P Karthik by Vikramadithya Shivaram

Karthik: A Winner all the way!

Blessed with natural athleticism, Karthik is a treat to watch when on song. One who possesses sound basics and never hesitating to attack naturally.

This year he has been blasting his opposition in the state winning double crowns with great authority. The only concern is that he is in the midst of serious graduation studies, otherwise there is no doubt that he would have done something fantastic even at the national level.

Here's wishing that he'll do it after his studies!

Name: KARTHIK C P

Date of Birth: 21-01-1990

Club: BNMTT (Bhageerathi Bai Narayan Rao Maanay Table Tennis Academy)

Coaches/Trainers: Krunal Telang

TT Idol: None

Ambition: To represent India in International Tournaments

Achievements: 

• Inter school U-19 National Champion
• Silver and Bronze Medallist U-17
• Ranked in top 10 in India in age group in 2003
• Bronze medal in Team event at the Junior National Championship, 2002
• Ranked in Top 10 in India in age group in 2002
• Currently ranked no.1 in Karnataka in the Youth and Men's category

Prize ceremony at the Deccan Gymkhana Prize Money Tournament

The finals was followed by prize distribution ceremony of the Table Tennis tournament.

The guests for the function were Mr. Sohoni from the Godrej Group, Mr Prakash Tulpule (Secretary MSTTA), Ashish Sandu (General Secretary, Deccan Gymkhana).

Mr. Prakash Tulpule

The tournament was sponsored by Godrej Properties Limited and the total prize money for the tournament was Rs. 40000.

Results of the Final day at Deccan Gymkhana Prize Money Tournament

 Martand (right) in a file photo

Sub-Junior Boys {Under 14 Years} Final

1) Neel Joshi{1} bt Rohan Kulkarni{4} 11-5, 11-9, 11-7

Junior Boys {Under 17 Years} Final  

1) Neel Joshi{4} bt Chinmay Datar{1} {Upset} 9-11, 14-12, 11-8, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9

Youth Boys {Under 20 Years} Final  

1) Martand Biniwale{1} bt Shubhankar Ranade{4} 11-6, 11-13, 11-5, 11-5, 12-14, 11-6

Veterans {40 Years +} Final

1) Rohinton Todiwala{2} bt M.A.Baig 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 

Men's Doubles Final

1) Aniket Koparkar / Rohit Chaudhary {1} bt Martand Biniwale / Upendra Mulaye {2}  11-4, 11-6, 11-6

Men's Singles Final

1) Aniket Koparkar {1} bt Martand Biniwale {2}  11-6, 11-13, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 11-9

Results of the Poona District Prize Money Table Tennis Tournament

Sub-Junior Girls {Under 14 Years} 

Round Semi-Final 

1) Manasi Chajed{1} bt Vaibhavi Kher{4} 11-5, 11-2, 11-5
2) Priyanka Tamhankar{3} bt Arohi Chajed{2} 11-4, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3

Sub-Junior Girls {Under 14 Years} Round Final
1) Manasi Chajed{1} bt Priyanka Tamhankar{3} 11-6, 11-7, 11-8

Junior Girls {Under 17 Years} Round Semi-Final
1) Shrungeri Pawale bt Arohi Chajed 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9
2) Mansi Chajed bt Ujwala Gaikwad 11-4, 11-7, 11-13, 11-9

Junior Girls {Under 17 Years} Round Final  

1) Mansi Chajed bt Shrungeri Pawale 11-6, 11-9, 11-8

Junior Boys {Under 17 Years} Round Quarter-Final  

1) Chinmay Datar{1} bt Anand Kale 11-7, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9
2) Aniket Gulawani{4} bt Siddharth Lohpatre 11-5, 11-3, 14-12, 10-12, 9-11, 8-11, 11-5
3) Neel Joshi{3} bt Rohan Kulkarni 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 13-11
4) Shubhankar Ranade{2} bt Varun Shastri 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7, 11-4

Youth Girls {Under 20 Years} Round Semi-Final  

1) Sayali Deshpande{1} bt Mansi Chajed{4} 11-6, 11-5, 11-3
2) Arohi Chajed bt Ujwala Gaikwad 6-11, 14-12, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6

Youth Girls {Under 20 Years} Round Final  

1) Sayali Deshpande{1} bt Arohi Chajed 11-4, 11-4, 11-8

Table Tennis player profile: Soumyajit Ghosh

Update: Soumyajit Ghosh wins Indian National Championhips!
Earlier: Soumyajit and Ankita qualify for London Olympics.

Soumyajit Ghosh became the Indian National Champion on January 12, 2013. He beat Sharath Kamal in the finals. In the semi-finals, he had beaten defending champion A Amalraj.

Soumyajit showed his talent very early in career. The strength in his game is his poise and anticipation. He is at the ball quickly, which makes it possible to catch the ball earlier and place it better and also hit harder than normal. His game is still improving. Soumya now does not hesitate to counter topspins against a topspin.

No less an authority than Sharath Kamal predicted great things for him.

He has already started performing in the Men's event. Currently training in Sweden and getting exposure to quality opposition, we hope that he goes far in the World of Table Tennis.

Name: Soumyajit Ghosh

Date of Birth: 10.05.1993

Club: Deshbandhu sporting club and young men association

Coaches/Trainers: Subrata Roy and Mantu Ghosh

Ambition: To win the Arjuna Award

Achievements:

• India National Champion
• 2012 London Olympics qualifier
• Youth national champion. 
• Commonwealth youth games winner in doubles
• Runner up in singles

Schedule of the prestigious Deccan Gymkhana Tournament Released

The following is the schedule of the Pune District Prize Money tournament to be held at Deccan Gymkhana, Pune from Oct 01 to Oct 03 2010. The main sponsor is Godrej Properties. Please click the Image to see it in bigger size.

The tournament has attracted a record number of entries and International players like Aniket Koparkar and Martand Biniwale are also expected to participate. Other prominent players include national level players like Rohit Chaudhari, Shubhankar Ranade, Upendra Mulye, Devika Bhide, Sruja Bhat, and Manasi Chajjed. The matches will be played at the State of the Art newly inaugurated hall in the new wing at Deccan Gymkhana campus. The Chief Referee of the tournament will be Mr. Madhukar Lonare.

Meanwhile, here is a photograph of the talent at Deccan Gymkhana.

Promising kids at Deccan Gymkhana with their Chief Coach, Rohit Chaudhari and Coach Manoj Phadke

Player Profile: Achanta Sharath Kamal

 Sharath about to unleash his deadly topspin

Sharath Kamal definitely stands tall and belongs to the all-time greats of Indian Table Tennis players. 

His seemingly laid back attacks combined with his tremendous reach and power are a force to reckon with. Even the very top players of the world now respect Sharath. He is at an all time high at the moment and we hope he continues to maintain his standard of play and reach higher.

Name: Sharath Kamal

Date of Birth: July 12, 1982

Club: San Sebastian de los Reyes

Coaches/Trainers: A Muralidhara Rao, A Srinivas Rao

Ambition: Best is yet to come

Achievements: 

Winner, US Open 2010

Winner, Egypt Open 2010

Winner Commonwealth Games 2006, Melbourne

Highest World Ranking No. 39

Gold Medal at Commonwealth Championships at Glasgow

Pro Tour winner at Delhi

Represented India at Olympics

Arjuna Awardee
Multiple National Championship Winner

Table Tennis Player Profile - Aman Balgu

Aman with the Inter-University trophy 2007-08

Aman is probably one of the fittest players on the Table Tennis circuit. His full-blooded strokes aided by his fleet feet makes him stand apart from the crowd immediately.

Aman blossomed gradually and achieved success in 2009 at the senior level.

Name: Aman Balgu

Date of Birth: July 19, 1989

Club: Andheri YMCA, Matunga Gymkhana

Coaches/Trainers: Deepak Mani, Kamlesh Mehta

Ambition: To win a medal for India at the Olympic Games

Achievements: 

Gold Medal at SAF Games - Team Event in 2009

Represented India at the Asian Championships

Silver Medal at Senior Nationals in Team Events 2009

Gold Medal - All India Inter-University 2009

State Champion - Youth and Men's Singles at Sangli 2009

Hobbies: Playing many sports, Catching up with friends, and Music.

August TT ratings for Maharashtra

The August ratings for the top players of Maharashtra are out. The big move is by Aniket from 2360 to 2395 owing to his performances at the State tournaments this season. Sanil too has cemented his position at the top by stellar performances at the National level and the Indian open. Balgu has disappointed so far but we expect a lot from this youth.


The big mover in the list is Martand Biniwale, who has played beyond his expected rating and has jumped right behind Rohit Chaudhari. If he continues to produce results that he has displayed this season, he could easily challenge the top 6. This youth is the one to watch for sure!


 Most of the others retain their ratings since they have played to expected strength.

Sanil Shetty wins US Open U-21 Crown

Maharashtra's star player, Sanil Shetty won the prestigious US Open title for Boys U 21. India earned more bragging rights when juniors Spoorthi and Utkarsh Gupta won the U 13 Girls and Boys titles.

Sharath Kamal progressed to the semi-finals of the blue ribbon event, the Men's Singles. He will also figure in the Men's doubles semi-finals along with partner Subhajit Saha. Subhajit lost in the Quarters, while Anthony Amalraj too made an exit in an earlier round but not before giving a big scare to the top seed, Keinath Thomas.

Koparkar Scores and Emphatic Title Win

Aniket Serves with intense concentration in this file photo

Pune's Aniket Koparkar, won the 3rd State Ranking Tournament at the University Pavilion (Marine Lines). In the finals, he beat top seed Aman Balgu of Mumbai 4-0 (Details to follow).

What is more heartening is that Koparkar trashed his close rivals Balgu and Martand Biniwale (against whom he had a narrow loss last year) without losing a single game. This augurs well for the coming National tournament season that is soon slated to start.

Martand Biniwale won the Youth Boy's singles title, while Devdutt Phadnavis of Nagpur bagged the Junior Boy's singles title.

2nd State Ranking Tournament at Dombivali

 Sanika showing off her well-earned trophies in a file photograph

Sanika Divekar, Sanish Ambekar in the Sub Junior Girls and Boys, and Ajaysingh Patil and Shruti Amrute in the Cadet Boys and Girls won the first titles at stake at the 2nd State Ranking Tournament at Thane (Dombivali).

For detailed results, please visit the MSTTA results page

Sharath Shines Again

It was the mighty Sharath again at the Indian open TT tournament! When it mattered most, Sharath Kamal pulled off some big winners to beat Patrick Baum, ranked as high as 34 in the world. Sharath is currently ranked 91, so this win will bring big points.

Now his fans want more and let's hope that he pulls off another big win (albeit a very very difficult one) against the powerful World No. 13 Dimitrij Ovtcharov. The battle is expected to be a hard one with both being hard hitters. Ovtcharov with his double flank attacks and Sharath with his largely powerful forehand strokes promise a scintillating fare. Fans on Facebook are already thrilled with his current achievement. But we all know Sharath wants to go two steps further and make this his best pro tour achievement to date.