Table Tennis India aims for medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Indian players are laser-focused on the Paris Olympics 2024, where 60 countries are participating in the Table Tennis sport. This time, they will not go to the athletes village to enjoy and meet famous sports stars. Their goal is to bag nothing less than medals.

This is probably the first Olympics when this aim is realistic. We have the experienced Sharath Kamal again along with India's star player, Manika Batra. But this time, we also have Sreeja Akula who has improved by leaps and bounds in the past few years and is now ranked in the elite groups.

India's team medal prospects provide some hope as the teams have players of good strength and experience.

Massimo Costantini is also sensing the ambitious mood of the Indian Table tennis team. A unique fact this time is that there are a few personal coaches, which indicates that the sport has become highly professional and lucrative at the top level.

India Table Tennis team composition:

Men’s team: Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai, and Manav Thakkar; 

Reserve player: G. Sathiyan

Men’s singles: Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai

Women’s team: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, and Archana Kamath; 

Reserve player: Ayhika Mukherjee

Women’s singles: Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula

Harmeet Desai and Sutirtha Mukherjee are National Champions!

Harmeet and Sutirtha won the National Table tennis Championships titles yesterday. While the strong Sutirtha beat Kritwikka in straight sets in the finals, Harmeet overcame teammate Manav Thakkar in a close encounter.

Super stars Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan were upset by Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet respectively.

Photo: Kesavan for The Hindu

Many Indian group matches at the Australian Open Table tennis tournament today

Harmeet Desai will start his match at 6 PM (Geelong time) at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Platinum Australian Open at Geelong. Sathiyan and Sharath will play their matches next followed by Manav a little later in the day. Sanil and Amalraj have already played their first matches yesterday. Sharath and Sathiyan have relatively easy opposition while Manav faces the formidable Maharu Yoshimura.

In the Women's singles, India's star player Manika Batra plays her match tomorrow. In a bizzare pairing, Sutirtha Mukherjee will face off against Ayhika Mukherjee in a group match. Bizzare because they've traveled thousands of kilometers to play at the Australian open from their home where they live just some kilometers apart! Pooja Sahasrabuddhe Koparkar won her tough group match earlier.

Photo courtesy of the ITTF. Only for representational purposes.

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 Table Tennis players' world ranking

The following are the Indian Table Tennis players rankings on the basis of World rankings in November 2017:

Top India Men World Rankings

45 ACHANTA Sharath Kamal
88 GNANASEKARAN Sathiyan
91 DESAI Harmeet
94 GHOSH Soumyajit
135 ANTHONY Amalraj

The superstar Achanta Sharath Kamal is still the top Indian player by world ranking in the Men's section. G Sathiyan is making waves on the ITTF circuit. If he continues at the same pace, he will soon be a seasoned force to reckon with.

Top India Women World Rankings

107 BATRA Manika
139 DAS Mouma
153 MUKHERJEE Ayhika
191 PATKAR Madhurika
219 KAMATH Archana Girish

Manika has been consistent from many years and has even breached the top 100 earlier. We can hope for a lot from Archana Kamath, who is ranked 219 even though she is still a junior! The surprise in this list is Ayhika, who is ranked high due to her exploits earlier.

Photo courtesy of the ITTF.

East Zone National Ranking Table Tennis tournament 2017

The 11Even Sports National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships is being held at Siliguri from 23 to 28 October, 2017. Over 700 players are expected to participate. Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan will be missing in action. However, other players such as Soumyajit, Sanil, Harmeet, will fight it out for the crown. In the women's section, almost all the top players will be present, including Manika, Mouma, Poulomi, Pooja, Ankita, and Sutirtha.

Asia Cup Table Tennis at Ahmedabad

The 30th Asia Cup Table Tennis tournament will be held at Ahmedabad from Sep 15 to 17.

Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai are expected to participate in this tournament.

Achanta Sharath Kamal plays Harimoto the Japanese prodigy in an attempt to reach the finals

In just a while, Achanta Sharath Kamal takes on 13 year old Japanese prodigy, Harimoto in the Men's singles semi final of the Seamaster ITTF World Tour India Open at New Delhi.

Sharath beat Paul Drinkhall in a thrilling Quarterfinal match 4-3 after deuce, while Harimoto beat an injured but experienced Robert Gardos

Editor

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

Liebherr Men's World Cup Table Tennis tournament at Halmstad, Sweden

The Invitational Men's World Cup Table Tennis tournament will be held from October 16-18 in Sweden.

Player list from official Web site, courtesy of the ITTF.

1	HENZELL William   AUS	103555	M			X				03/23/1982	09/10/2015 8:44:09 AM
2	GARDOS Robert   AUT	102968	M			X				01/16/1979	09/10/2015 8:46:11 AM
3	TSUBOI Gustavo   BRA	109581	M			X				05/31/1985	09/10/2015 8:43:37 AM
4	FAN Zhendong   CHN	121404	M			X				01/22/1997	09/10/2015 8:47:57 AM
5	MA Long   CHN	105649	M			X				10/20/1988	09/10/2015 8:35:00 AM
6	ASSAR Omar   EGY	100696	M			X				07/22/1991	09/10/2015 8:43:23 AM
7	GAUZY Simon   FRA	112062	M			X				10/25/1994	09/10/2015 8:45:34 AM
8	OVTCHAROV Dimitrij   GER	107028	M			X				09/02/1988	09/10/2015 8:44:21 AM
9	GIONIS Panagiotis   GRE	103107	M			X				01/07/1980	09/10/2015 8:45:03 AM
10	TANG Peng   HKG	109253	M			X				02/04/1981	09/10/2015 8:45:16 AM
11	ACHANTA Sharath Kamal   IND	104314	M			X				07/12/1982	09/10/2015 8:46:28 AM
12	NIWA Koki   JPN	110729	M			X				10/10/1994	09/10/2015 8:46:46 AM
13	MIZUTANI Jun   JPN	106195	M			X				06/09/1989	09/10/2015 8:44:35 AM
14	APOLONIA Tiago   POR	100621	M			X				07/28/1986	09/10/2015 8:45:52 AM
15	FREITAS Marcos   POR	102841	M			X				04/08/1988	09/10/2015 8:44:49 AM
16	GAO Ning   SIN	102943	M			X				10/11/1982	09/10/2015 8:47:03 AM
17	KARLSSON Kristian   SWE	104379	M			X				08/06/1991	09/10/2015 8:47:22 AM
18	KALLBERG Anton   SWE	116853	M			X				08/17/1997	09/10/2015 8:47:39 AM
19	CHUANG Chih-Yuan   TPE	101820	M			X				04/02/1981	09/10/2015 8:48:22 AM
20	BUTLER Jimmy   USA	101407	M			X				02/15/1971	09/10/2015 8:43:53 AM

Achanta Sharath Kamal profile information and achievements

Achanta Sharath Kamal is one of India's best ever Table Tennis players. He shot into national prominence at the turn of the century and started winning medals for India soon after that. He has consistently performed at the highest level. Sharath's play has reached a new high after joining Timo Boll and team at Borussia Dusseldorf.

Current World Ranking - 44 (April 2015)

Some of Sharath's key achievements:

• Gold medal at the 16th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at Kuala Lampur.
• Bundesliga for Borussia Düsseldorf (Champions and currently reached finals at the European Champions League). First Indian to perform at this level in a premium league.
• Arjuna Award 2004
• 2006 Commonwealth Games at Melbourne Gold medal. Beat William Henzell in the finals
• Won 2010 Egypt Open. Beat Li Ching of Hong Kong in the finals in straight sets.
• 2010 US Open at Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Mens Doubles title at 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi with Subhajit Saha
• Participated in the 2004, 2008 Olympics at Athens and Beijing.
• Many times National Champion
• Participated at the Asian Games 2006 Doha, Qatar
• Won Pyong Yong Invitational at North Korea
• Bundesliga - TSV Gräfelfing, SV Weder Bremen, Borussia Düsseldorf (current club)
• Deutsche Pokal for 2013
• Doubles silver at Glasgow Commonwealth games with A Amalraj in doubles
• 6th place at the Asian TT Championships
• Represents PSPB in the National level tournaments along with Amalraj, Sanil Shetty, Harmeet Desai and others.
• Invited to play at World Cup

School: PSBB Nungambakkam School
College: Loyola College, Chennai

Achanta Sharath Kamal and team reach European Champions League (ECL) finals

Sharath Kamal, Timo Boll and Patrick Franziska clicked as a team to reach the finals of the European Champions (Table Tennis) League.

Borussia Düsseldorf won 3-1 against Chartres ASTT. Timo won two points for the top German team while Sharath again showed his class by beating veteran Damien Eloi. Chartres was unlucky that Gao Ning was unable to play due to injury.

Borussia will now fight for the title against Dimitrij Ovtcharov and team.

Editor

Photo: teamusa.org

World Rankings of Indian Table Tennis Players

World Rankings of top India Table Tennis players

Men

44	49	ACHANTA Sharath Kamal		IND	2240
104	110	GHOSH Soumyajit		IND	2028
159	152	DESAI Harmeet		IND	1838
188	171	GNANASEKARAN Sathiyan		IND	1762
317		KUMAR Jubin		IND	1388

Women

World Ranking 4/2015 - General List - Women
Ranking	Previous	Name		Assoc	Ranking Pts.
171		DAS Mouma		IND	1946
195		GHATAK Poulomi		IND	1893
195	186	DAS Ankita		IND	1893
226	212	PATKAR Madhurika		IND	1830
267	262	AKULA Sreeja		IND	1716

Sharath beats Joo Se Hyuk and Chuang Chih-Yuan at Jaipur

Sharath Kamal beat two world class players in one day and will be facing one more elite player later in the day.

He beat Chinese Taipei's Chuang Chih-Yuan 11-6, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3 and then came back from 2-7 in the decider to beat our generation's top defender, Joo Se Hyuk 11-3, 4-11, 11-8, 7-11, 13-11
The tournament is the 28th Asian Cup at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.

Photo source: punjabupdate.com on google.com

Indian team for Asian games at Incheon

After a lot of speculation about the uncertainty surrounding India's participation at the Asian Games at Incheon, the team will go and the same team that participated in the Glasgow games has been retained.

Men: A. Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Harmeet Desai, Antony Amalraj and Sanil Shetty.

Women: Ankita Das, Madhurika Patkar, Poulomi Ghatak, Manika Batra and Neha Aggarwal.

Coaches: Peter Engel and Bhawani Mukherjee.

Sharath Kamal on the Cover of a World leading Table Tennis Magazine

Tischtennis is one of the leading Table Tennis magazine in the entire World and Sharath Kamal was the cover Table Tennis star recently.

The magazine is published monthly. Regional, National and international Table Tennis events are reported. In addition to this, training tips, product reviews, rule change discussions, and so on are discussed. The main subscribers are the numerous clubs around Germany and thousands of ambitious players.

Editor

Timo, Sharath ensure win in the opening tie of the Bundesliga Table Tennis league

Timo Boll, Achanta Sharath Kamal, and Patrick Baum ensured that Borussia Dusseldorf collected their first win in the opening tie of the Bundesliga (German Table Tennis league).

Sharath Kamal provided the crucial point for Dusseldorf after Baum suffered an upset at the hands of Gacina of TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau. Timo Boll did the rest by winning two rubbers.

 

Sharath Kamal seeded seventh at the Czech Republic ITTF World Tour event

Indian ace Sharath Kamal is participating in the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour, Czech Open, Major Series 21 Aug 2013 - 25 Aug 2013, Olomouc, CZECH REPUBLIC. Owing to his World No. 64 ranking, Sharath is the seventh seed in the tournament.

In the doubles, he will be partnering young Ricardo Walther of Germany. Incidentally, Ricardo is a team mate of Sharath's at Borussia Dusseldorf, which also boasts of other big names such as Timo Boll, Patrick Baum and Cristian Suss.

The Czech tournament will be a very good warm up for Sharath as Borussia Dusseldorf have a match against TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau on 31st August.

(Photo: www.Sportskeeda.com)

Seedings (Numbers at the end are world rankings)
 
1 TAKAKIWA Taku JPN 43
2 FRANZISKA Patrick GER 45
3 CHAN Kazuhiro JPN 48
4 SKACHKOV Kirill RUS 49
5 SHIBAEV Alexander RUS 59
6 MATSUMOTO Cazuo BRA 63
7 ACHANTA Sharath Kamal 64
8 LIVENTSOV Alexey 71

Harmeet Desai to play Xu Xin tomorrow at the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Busan

Young Harmeet Desai will face World No. 1 Xu Xin in the third round of the Asian Championships at Busan. The match will be played tomorrow at 10:30 AM India time.

Ankita Das beat players from Vietnam and Korea to reach the pre-quarterfinals.

Sharath Kamal is in good nick but has a tough opponent in Zhou Yu of China. Zhou survived a tough 2nd round battle battle.
Amalraj will play against Jian Tianyi and Sanil Shetty will face off against Kenta Matsudaira.

Soumyajit Ghosh was unfortunate to run into a world beater in the 2nd round and lost to Cho Eon Rae (World top 50 player)

Editor
www.TableTennisBug.com

Chaitanya Udare takes a game off Sharath Kamal

Chaitanya Udare, a young talented Table Tennis player putting up a decent fight against Indian International, Sharath Kamal. Sharath won 4-1. The match was played at Bengaluru in the 2012 and was a South Zone Table Tennis National level tournament.

Watch the video here.


Chaitanya is a Maharashtra A player and has represented Maharashtra at the National level several times in the Senior and Junior level. He has also represented India during his sub junior playing days.

Chaitanya plays near the table and matches Sharath's speed in some rallies.