Ma Lin selfie

Ma Lin takes a selfie. Wang Hao watches curiously.

Photo at sports.sohu.com

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

Chinese Table Tennis team trials for Paris World Championships

The final leg of the Chinese team trials are starting. The favorites to qualify are Zhang Jike, Ma Long, and Xu Xin. But Jike suffered an injury recently.

The other experienced players in the fray are Ma Lin, Chen Qi, and Wang Hao.

The youngsters who will challenge experience are Yan An and Fan Zhendong.

Wang Hao latest update

Wang Hao is still playing as much as he can in the Chinese premier TT league even after losing out on a gold medal on his third attempt. Zhang Jike praised big brother Hao right after he won the Gold. Liu Guoliang too showered praise. 

If anything, Wang Hao's won more fans even after losing. Evidence - the Chinese media going ga-ga over a hit of a streak of golden hair!

Mizutani shoots into Top five in World Table Tennis Rankings

Jun Mizutani is the biggest gainer and is now No. 5 on the World Table Tennis Rankings list. Ma Lin dropped a place and so did Timo Boll, who is now No. 7.

Zhang Jike, Ma Long, Xu Xin, and Wang Hao continue to lead the rankings.

From India, Sharath Kamal is no 63 and Amalraj moved up to 155th. Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das are in the top 200 in the Women's section.

Favorites at the London Olympics Table Tennis

Although a dark horse can emerge and grab titles, it is unlikely that the winner at the London Olympics Table Tennis will be out of the following lists:

Men
 Wang Hao (CHN)
 Timo Boll (GER)
 Zhang Jike (CHN)
 Jun Mizutani (JPN)
 Vladimir Samsonov (BLR)
 Joo Se-Hyuk (KOR)
 Oh Sang-Eun (KOR)
 Chuang Chih-yuan (TPE)
 Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER)

Among the men, our picks are Wang Hao (who won two silver medals at the last two Olympics), and Zhang Jike, the fighter and the current World Champion.

Women

 Li Xiaoxia (CHN)
 Ding Ning (CHN)
 Feng Tianwei (SIN)
 Kasumi Ishikawa (JPN)
 Ai Fukuhara (JPN)
 Kim Kyung-Ah (KOR)
 Wang Yuegu (SIN)
 Tie Ya Na (HKG)

Team Men

1     CHINA         
2     GERMANY         
3     KOREA REPUBLIC          
4     JAPAN   
5     HONG KONG

Team Women 

1     CHINA
2     JAPAN
3     SINGAPORE
4     KOREA REPUBLIC
5     HONG KONG
6     GERMANY

Zhang Jike, Wang Hao, Ma Long or Xu Xin?

China is now in a very strange situation. They had to name 3 players for the London Olympics and after a HUGE selection process spanning more than a year, they chose World Champion Zhang Jike, Wang Hao for singles and Ma Long in addition to these two for the team events.

Now suddenly, Xu Xin, who is not even in the core team has burst into such terrific form, just losing the Korean Pro Tour by a hair's breadth (where he had a match point) and winning the China Open beating Zhang Jike and Ma Long comprehensively, thus leaving the Chinese TT management utterly confused. Remember, Table Tennis is high pressure there and their players are as famous in their country as our Cricket players. Ma Lin has fame that can rival Sachin. Any solutions?

Editor,
www.TableTennisBug.com

Training to the summit: Ma Lin and Wang Hao climb 100 floors

Climb photo courtesy tabletennista.com and nddaily.com

Many people feel that the Chinese Table Tennis players are dominant and do not understand the hardships they go through. Most of the present day stars including Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, Wang Hao, Zhang Jike, Ma Long and others are already millionaires, but they do not hesitate to put in more and more hard work to reach their goals.

A recent example is the winter training that Liu Guoliang put them through. At Shenzen, Guoliang made Wang Hao and Ma Lin climb one of the tallest buildings - the 100 floor 442 metre high Kingkey tower.

Both the players could not complete the climb in their first attempt, but fiesty as they are, they did it on subsequent attempts and even wore a relaxed smile as they took in the beautiful landscape of Shenzen from the very top.

News bits - Timo Boll, Segun Toriola

Timo chooses to stay with Borussia Dusseldorf. He signed a contract to be with them until 2014. Sergei Ivanov, President of Orenburg, had offered him a contract after the end of ECL's last season.
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The September World rankings have been released for 2011 and the big mover is Ma Long from No. 5 to No. 2. Wang Hao continues to lead the rankings. Guo Yan moves up from No. 4 to No. 2 while Li Xiaoxia stays at the top in the Women's category.

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Segun Toriola is the favourite at the 2011 All African games. He will be trying to win the title for the 5th consecutive time.

Bookmark him, Yan An is going to be a star!

Yan An and Feng Yalan

Keep this name in your mind. This time, you can't blame that the name is a tongue-twister. Yan An, very simple.

We had already informed that this 18 year old kid is creating waves in the Chinese super league. There is more now.
In the Harmony Open China Pro Tour event, he first beat the World No. 1 Wang Hao and went on to beat Xu Xin (who had just recently beaten him in the Universiade games 4-0!)

Yan An is at this very moment playing Zhang Jike, the World Champ in the semi finals and is trailing 0-2.

Watch him play!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzp-fQNW10

Player Profile: India's Star TT Player - Sourav Chakraborty

Sourav is one of India's best ever left handed players. His fearless and effortless style of plays often leaves his opponents panting.
Sourav has made a name for himself not only in the sub continent, but he has also played a stellar role in the club he played for in the middle of the last decade.

Your's truly once saw him demolishing one of the top players in a leading state in ruthless style. It is well known that Sourav single-handedly won the title for PSPB in the recent Nationals even though he was saddled with a personal emergency situation involving his father. The fact that Sourav held the flag high even without practice says a lot about his class.



Name: Sourav Chakraborty

Date of Birth: 01-01-1985

Current India Ranking - 3

Highest India Ranking - 1

Junior World Ranking (2001) -14

PARTICIPATION IN  MAJOR INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENTS

1. World T.T. Championships in Paris in the years of 2002-2003

2. World T.T. Championships in Shanghai in the years of 2004-2005

3. Asian T.T Championships in Bangkok in the years of 2002-2003

4. Asian T.T Championships in Seoul (South Korea ) in the years of 2004-2005

5. Played Yugoslavian Top League for Red Star Club( Serbia ) in 2004-2005. Created a record of winning all the matches for Red Star Club.

6. World Championships in Yokohama in the year of 2009.

7. India VS England Series - Defeated Paul Drinkhall and Andrew Ruston.

8. Kuwait Open Championship 2009 - Qualified and lost in main draw to Ma Lin.

9. Qatar open Chamiponship 2009 - Qualified and lost in main draw to Wang Hao.

10. China Open 2009 - lost in main draw to Ta Ku( Japan ).

11. Defeated William Henzell (2006, Commonwealth Games silver medalist in mens singles) in the pre-quarter finals at Glasgow in commonwealth championship,2009.

MAJOR  NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

S. No.	Tournament	Place	Year	Medal
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	Guwahati	2009-2010	Silver(Singles) Gold(Mens Doubles) Silver(Mixed Doubles) Bronze(Team)
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	Patna ( Bihar )	2008-2009	Bronze (singles) Bronze (Doubles) Silver (Team)
	Senior national T.T championship	Siliguri ( North Bengal )	2007-2008	Silver (singles) (Doubles) (Team)
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	Ajmer(Rajasthan)	2006/2007	Silver (Team) Gold (Doubles Men)
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	Jaipur (Rajasthan)	2005/2006	Silver (Team)
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	Panvel ( Maharashtra )	2004/2005	Silver (Team) Bronze (Singles)
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	Maneswar (Haryana)	2003/2004	Silver (Team)
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	Pune ( Maharashtra )	2002/2003	Silver (Team) Gold (Men’s Doubles) Gold (Mixed Doubles)
	Senior national T.T. Championship’s	New Delhi	2001-2002	Silver (Singles) Gold (Team)
	Jr. Qatar Open Championship’s	Hyderabad	2001-2002	Gold (Singles Team, Mixed Doubles) Silver (Team)
	World Railway Championship’s	Bangaluru (KNT)	1999-2000	Gold (Singles, Doubles, Team)
	World Railway Championship’s	Indore (M.P)	1998-1999	Gold (Singles, Team)

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL ACHEVEMENTS

S. No.	Tournament	Place	Year	Medal
	Commonwealth Games	U.K. ( Manchester )	2002	Bronze (Team)
	Commonwealth Championship’s	New Delhi	2001/2002	Silver (Team)
	Jr. Asian Championship’s	Hong Kong	2000/2001	Bronze (Team)
	Taiyun Jr. International Championship’s	China	2000/2001	Gold (Singles) Silvers (Doubles) Bronze (Team)
	Hungary World Youth Festival	Hungary	2000/2001	Silver (Singles)
	Hungary World Youth Festival	Hungary	1999/2000	Bronze (Singles)
	South Asian Championship’s	Bangladesh	2000/2001	Gold (Single) Doubles (Team) Doubles (Mixed)
	Jr. Qatar Open Championship’s	Qatar	2000/2001	Gold (Singles)
	World Railway Championship’s	Poland	2001/2002	Gold (singles) Silver (Team) Bronze (Doubles)
	World Railway Championship’s	CzechRepublic	2006/2007	Bronze (Singles) Gold (Doubles)
	Commonwealth Championship’s	Scotland	2009	Silver(team) Quarter-finals(mens singles)