Sunday, May 30, 2010

China wins World Team Championships

With his devastating attack, Ma Lin starred in China's victory over Germany at the World Table Tennis Championships at Moscow.

Timo Boll was once again the hero of the losing side, beating World No. 1 Ma Long in a thrilling encounter after being 0-2 games down at one stage.

Results:
Ma Long lost to Timo Boll 2-3
Ma Lin beat D Ovtcharov 3-0
Zhang Jike beat C Suss 3-0
Ma Lin beat Timo Boll 3-1

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Indian men finish 29th, women 37th at the WTTC


Indian men finished 29th while the women finished 37th in the World Team Table Tennis Championships held at Moscow.

In the play off for the 29th spot, India beat Brazil 3-1 even though it did not field the star player - Sharath Kamal.
In an earlier match, India had lost to Serbia after it was relegated to the 25-36 position play off. In the league matches, India lost the crucial tie to Belgium.

2013 World Team Table Tennis Championships to be held at Paris


Paris will host the 2013 edition of the World Team Table Tennis championships.

In a rare gesture, Doha gave up its bid so that Paris can conduct the Championships in a decade after it had hosted the 47th edition of the event.

Aniket Koparkar bags Men's crown


Pune's Aniket Koparkar won the Men's singles title at the 2nd District Ranking tournament held at Sharada center today. In the finals, he beat Bhushan Thakur in straight games.

Although a couple of games were hard fought, Bhushan had real chances only in the first game. After he let that opportunity slip, it was Koparkar all the way.

In a hard fought Youth boys finals, Chinmay Datar of the host team, claimed the title beating the gritty Amish Karamchandani of Deccan Gymkhana. The match went all the way to the last game and the last two points decided the title. Amish had the edge throughout but Chinmay breasted the tape first.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

India finishes 2nd in League



India finished second behind Belgium in the 2nd Division league matches at the World Championships of Table Tennis being held at Moscow.

India's star player, Sharath Kamal, was not at his best self losing two matches in the leagues, including a loss against the junior player from Belgium. The others started well in the initial matches but crumbled when it mattered most. With this loss, India's dream of moving into the elite 1st division is in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the favorites China topped their group and look set to dominate the proceedings. However, the reigning World Champion Wang Hao was stretched in a couple of matches by relatively lesser known players. China is exposing their new players Xu Xin and Zhang Jike at the World level since Wang Liqin was eliminated in the selection trials.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

World Team Championships commence at Moscow



The World Team Table Tennis championships start today at Moscow.

As usual, China are by default the favorites. But the shocking news is that they do not have the formidable Wang Liqin in their line up for the first time since 1997. Liqin lost in a play off against Ma Lin in the selection trials. Earlier, Wang Hao had squeaked into the team by beating both Ma Lin and Liqin. The other members in the squad are the very young Ma Long, Xu Xin, and Zhang Jike.

India spearheaded by Sharath Kamal, play in the second division and will hope they can turn a good performance and move into the elite group for the next edition.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Maharashtra State and Pune District TT Calendar


Here's the tentative Calendar for the 2010 for Maharashtra State and Pune District Table Tennis players. Click the picture to see in detail.
There is an apparent clash around July 15 in the Calendar. We'll keep you updated on this.

Note the following:

PD - Pune District Ranking
SR - Maharashtra State Ranking
WZ - West Zone National Ranking

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Mallika in the World's Top Ten



Mallika Bhandarkar of Maharashtra rolled into the top ten of the Girls U-15 section in the ITTF World Rankings published in May.

She is probably the highest ranked player India has ever produced in any age or open category. The gutsy player has always been in contention at the World level in the Cadet Section. What is more creditable is that she is in the top 50 in the U 18 Girls section and in the top 100 of the U-21 section. Mallika is also slowly climbing the Women's rankings.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Chaudhari steers Deccan Gymkhana to Inter Club Table Tennis title



Rohit Chaudhari of Deccan Gymkhana was the hero of the day at the finals of the Inter-club Table Tennis championships held at Solaris Club.

Chaudhari earned two wins for Deccan, while his team mate completed the win by winning the deciding rubber in a facile manner. Shubhankar Ranade had provided some respite by beating Kunal Tilekar in the 3rd rubber. Deccan thus won the match 3-2.

The keenly anticipated match of the day was Rohit Chaudhari vs Bhushan Singh Thakur. Thakur is an ex-international player. But the day belonged to the accurate play of Chaudhari. Thakur could offer only token resistance in a match that was dominated by Chaudhari but punctuated with thrilling rallies. The only point at which Chaudhari faced resistance was at 6-3 in the 3rd game. Chaudhari relaxed his grip to allow Thakur to make a come back. Thakur won the game after saving a match point down 9-10.

The fourth game was a complete rout. Chaudhari led 9-0 and eventually won the game at 11-3.