Sathiyan, Manika fly to new highs

G Sathiyan and Manika Batra reached new high rankings of 28 and 47 respectively. Their previous month rankings stood at 31 and 51.

These are indeed new highest rankings in the new millennium. Table tennis is growing in popularity mainly due to the exploits of stars like Manika, Sharath, and Sathiyan. There are multiple generations of Table tennis players now ready to take the country to newer highs.

UTT (Ultimate Table Tennis) player draft

The player draft of the UTT took place today.

The following players were picked for the various UTT franchises:

Falcons TTC: Sanil Shetty (pre-selected) Bernadette Szocs, Matilda Ekholm, Liam Pitchford, Alvaro Robles, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ronit Bhanja, Priyadarshini Das

Dabang Smashers T.T.C.: G Sathiyan (pre-selected) Sakura Mori, Masaki Yoshida, Manika Batra, Adriana Diaz, Archana Kamath, Sanish Ambekar, Cedric Nuytinck

RP-SG Mavericks: Doo Hoi Kem, Mattias Karlsson, Harmeet Desai, Kou Lei, Ayhika Mukherjee, Mouma Das, Siddhesh Pande, Sabine Winter

DHFL Maharashtra United: Kristian Karlsson, Elizabeta Samara, Anthony Amalraj, Madhurika Patkar, Joao Monteiro, Lily Zhang, Selena Selvakumar, Utkarsh Gupta

Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas: Chih Yuan Chuang, Sofia Polcanova, Sharath Kamal, Aruna Quadri, Hana Matelova, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Sreeja Akula, Ravindra Kotiyan

Shaze Challengers: Lee Ho Ching, Georgina Pota, Simon Gauzy, Manav Thakar, Tiago Apolonia, Divya Deshpande, Arjun Ghosh, Prapti Sen

India lose to China in the Asian Table Tennis Championships

China, playing without its top player, World Champion Ma Long, was still powerful enough to beat India by the expected 3-0 margin.

Xu Xin took China to 1-0 by beating Harmeet Desai 11-9, 11-9 and 11-3. Chinese great Zhang Jike enhanced the score by overcoming G Sathiyan 11-5, 11-3, and 11-4. Young Fan Zhendong completed the rout and put an end to India's challenge by beating National Champion Soumyajit Ghosh 11-6, 11-7, and 11-8.

Indian team for the Asian Championships at Thailand

The following members are representing India at the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya, Thailand:

Men: Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty and G Sathiyan
Women: Mouma Das, Ankita Das, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, K Shamini and Manika Batra

Manika Batra and Soumyajit win U 21 titles at the Brazil Open Table Tennis tournament

Manika Batra and Soumyajit Ghosh won the U 21 Girls and Boys titles at the Brazil open.
While Manika beat the host nation's Caroline Kumahara 11:5, 9:11, 12:10, 11:5 and 11:5, Soumyajit over came Benjamin Brossier of France in seven tough sets 8:11, 6:11, 11;7, 11:6, 9:11, 11:7 and 11:2.
Incidentally, Soumyajit beat G Sathiyan also of India, who won the bronze medal.

All in all, the Indian players ensured a rich medal haul with Ankita Das reaching the finals (to be played today), again beating Caroline Kumahara and Harmeet Desai (semi finals). Ankita Das faces the very strong Elizabeta Samara of Romania, who recently achieved the rare feat of an European reaching a World Cup final.

Photo source: ittf.com

Indian entries for GAC group World Tour Brazil Open at Santos, Brazil

India is sending a young contingent to the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Brazil Open, Americas Challenge Series
08 Aug 2013 - 11 Aug 2013, Santos, BRAZIL

Boys
Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, G Sathiyan, V Nitin

Girls
Kritwika Roy, Ankita Das, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Manika Batra

ITTF World Tour Table Tennis tournament at Las Vegas

Vegas!

Las Vegas is hosting the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour, US Open, Americas Challenge Series from 03 Jul 2013 - 06 Jul 2013.

Indian names in the official entry list - Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Divya Deshpande, G Sathiyan and Jubin Kumar.

East Zone National Table Tennis Results updates

Tournament Results updates 

Sourav Chakraborty

It was a complete domination by the experienced over the new gen Table Tennis players.

East Zone semi-final line up:

Soumyadeep Roy vs Arputharaj Amalraj

Subhajit Saha vs Sourav Chakraborty

Quarter finals:

Amalraj bt Jubin Kumar, Soumyadeep Roy bt Harmeet Desai, Subhajit Saha bt Soumyajit Ghosh, Sourav Chakraborty bt G Sathiyan.

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Sourav Chakraborty upset second seed Sanil Shetty in the Men's singles pre quarter finals of the East Zone National Table Tennis tournament.
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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.

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.