Sharath Kamal off to a good start at World Cup Table Tennis 2013

Sharath Kamal is in elite company at the World Cup in Belgium. His competitors include the likes of Xu Xin, Timo Boll, Ovtcharov, Samsonov, among a host of others.

In a Stage 1 match, Sharath snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against Australian legend William Henzell 12-14, 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-3, 12-10. Henzell was the youngest inductee into Australia's Hall of Fame at age 26, at that time, 20 years younger than any other inductee.

Sharath now plays Hong Kong's Tang Peng in a crucial match that will most likely decides who advances to the Stage 2, that has the World's top players waiting. It is worth noting that Sharath Kamal is the first Indian to qualify for this elite championships whose past winners include Waldner, Persson, Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, Vladimir Samsonov, Ma Lin, Wang Hao (王皓), Timo Boll and Zhang Jike.

Editor
www.TableTennisBug.com

Waldner the Master of Deception

Waldner is a master of deception. Even against World Class players like Patrick Baum who possess huge power, Jan Ove Waldner holds his own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwkxiq8LQaI&feature=plcp

World Veterans Table Tennis Championships 2012 at Stockholm

The World Veterans Table Tennis Championships 2012 were held at Stockholm, Sweden at the Ericsson Globe, a huge hall with hundreds of tables.

There were 3333 official entries for the tournament, although some did not turn up. From India, there were 210 entries, but again some participants could not make it to Stockholm. The star players in the tournament were Sweden's former World Champion Mikael Appelgren and Phillipe Saive of Belgium. Appelgren and Waldner played a scintillating exhibition match during the opening ceremony.

The number of participants was massive in many categories. For example, in the Men's 50-59 category, there were 170 groups, with 4 players in each group for a total of around 680 players. The winner Mikael Appelgren had to win around 10 rounds in total to lay claim on the Title.

All the participants played enthusiastically. The best performance for India was the doubles pair of Suhasini Bakre and Mantu Murmu in the Women's 50-59 category. They reached the pre-quarterfinals of the main draw after many gruelling rounds. In the Men's doubles 40-49 age group, Kapil Kumar partnering a player from another country reached the round of 32.

In the singles, the best performance was from Shilpa Joshi in the Womens 40-49 age group. She reached the round of 32. Anil Rasam, Deepak Dudhane, and Vivek Alawani reached the round of 64 in their respective Men's age groups. They had to win several rounds to reach this far.

For those who were eliminated early in the group stages, the organizers conducted competitions in Consolation draws. Amarnath Bhargava of India won the 2nd place in the Consolation Men's 75-79 age group singles.

For more details of results of all age groups, please visit www.wvc2012.com

Editor, www.TableTennisBug.com

Swedish Legend Kjell Johansson passes away

Kjell Johansson, who laid the foundation for the successes that Sweden enjoyed for decades, passed away recently in his native Sweden. 

He was a world champion of Table Tennis, who ended the Chinese monopoly in the early 70s and arguably was one of the main reasons for the birth of a new generation of stars such as Appelgren, Erik Lindh, Jan Ove Waldner, Jorgen Persson and many others.

Johansson was called Hammaren, which means the hammer in Swedish, because of his hard forehand.