India's top Table Tennis Marriage of the season

M Jagadish
Soumyadeep Roy and Poulami Ghatak's wedding was conducted with great pomp and show. Many Table Tennis players attended the important occasion.

Player portrait: Dr. Ashutosh V. Bapat, M.D., F.A.C.C.

Name: Dr. Ashutosh V. Bapat, M.D., F.A.C.C.

Achievements: National Level Table Tennis Player from Karnataka

Currently a practicing Physician in the USA.

Table Tennis and Fitness

 File photo of Wang Liqin's body - he is one of the fittest on tour

M Jagadish
One of the things I noticed at Dubai was World Class Table Tennis players' physique. You cannot miss their well chiseled bodies, sinewy muscles, lean, and highly toned frames.

It is a well known fact that energy transfer happens through the feet first, to the calves, thigh muscles, abs, back, shoulders and finally to the arms!

All these players have worked hard on their bodies and honed them to perfection, ready for the battle on the table.

When you want to play the game semi-professionally or professionally, the following muscles/muscle groups need to be worked upon:

• Quadriceps
• Abs
• Hamstrings
• Calves
• Chest
• Shoulders
• Triceps
• Lower back
• Gluts

We will talk more about this in later articles.

Table Tennis Player Potrait: Bona Thomas John

Bona Thomas John promoting the game

Name: Bona Thomas John

City: Bengaluru

Achievements: 

• International Player in the last decade of the last millenium. 
• Won National level titles
• Beat almost all top players of India in his prime.

Table Tennis Player Potrait: Karnam Spoorthy

Karnam Spoorthy serves with intense concentration

Name: K Spoorthy

Place: Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

Style: Steady attack

Achievements:
Multiple Gold medallist at National level.
Gold medal at US Open.
Will travel to Sweden for Professional Training
Already representing State Senior team at young age.

Table Tennis Player Potrait: Pathik Mehta

Pathik serves

Name: Pathik Mehta, International player from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India.

Style: Offensive

Base: Plays leagues in Spain currently.

Player Profile: Neha Aggarwal

Neha Aggarwal is a gritty player and one of the top players from the Northern part of India. Being a top player from the North is already a challenge, with not too many players to look up to or train with. But Neha is used to winning many such battles. This girl with film star looks and the poise of a suave businesswoman does not hesitate to deal with problems head on.


One such commendable achievement is the fact that she has remained among the top players of the country despite having to give up her favourite rubber. She is one of the very few women from India to make a mark on the biggest stage of all, the Olympic Games.


With age on her side, and with her never say die attitude, Neha is bound to go places. We would not be surprised if she plays an even bigger role and brings glory to the sport and country in many avatars.

Name: Neha Aggarwal

Date of Birth: 11.01.1990

Club: Stag Table Tennis Academy/ Hansraj Table Tennis Academy

Coaches/Trainers: Mr. Sandeep Gupta

Achievements:
International:
1. Participated in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games held in Beijing, China.
2. Silver medal in singles and mixed doubles in Maldives Golden Jubilee Invitational Tournament 2010.
3. Bronze medal in 2009 Commonwealth Championship held in Scotland
4. Gold medal in doubles 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games held in Pune.
5. Participated in 2006 World Table Tennis Championship held in Germany
6. Participated in 2008 World Table Tennis Championship held in China
7. Participated in 4 World Junior Championships from 2005-2008
8. Gold medal in doubles, silver in teams and 15th position in singles in the ITTF World Cadet Challenge held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from 23rd-30th oct.2005.Received a special player award (female) for exceptional leadership qualities.
9. Bronze medal in team events in the 12th Asian junior table tennis championship held at Kityakyushu, Japan from 25-30th July 2006
10. Gold medal in team events and Silver medal in doubles in the Stag Canadian Open table tennis tournament held at Montreal, Canada from 12-15th April 2007
11. Silver medal in team events and Bronze medal in doubles in SAIL 2006 India Junior Open TT Championship ITTF WJC held in Kolkata, India from 21st –24th June 2006
12. Gold medal in singles, doubles and team events in SAIL South Asian Junior TT Championships held in Kolkata, India from 18th-20th June 2006

National:
1. Winner in 2007 All India Inter Institution Table Tennis Championship.
2. Winner in 2007 Youth National Championship.
3. 2005 Junior National Champion

Player Profile: Lalrinpuia (India Sub junior Champion)

Lalrinpuia executes a delectable backhand chop

Lalrinpuia is fresh from the recent success of having being crowned the Sub Junior National Champion of India at Indore. He was consistent throughout the year, but not bagging a single zonal title. His best was a final at the East Zone. But what a way to end the year!

The finals at the Sub Juniors seemed to be destined to end the same way, with the favourite, Utkarsh Gupta leading by 3-1 and also commandingly 5-1 in the deciding game. But Lalrinpuia true to the style he adopts (chopper), fought back like his hero Joo Se Hyuk and clinched a thrilling match that went down to the wire.

After Abishek, Lalrinpuia is India's next big promising defence player. He has miles to go but his clinical style even at this age, is enough for us to be proud and hopeful of bigger things to come.

Name: Lalrinpuia

Date of Birth: 12 Feb 1998

Club: PSPB Academy

Coaches/Trainers: Vijay Kumar Agarwal

TT Idol: Joo Se Hyuk

Achievements: Sub Junior National title

Best win (over a player): Utkarsh Gupta

Best win (a tournament): Again, over Utkarsh from 3-1 down and being down 5-1 in the decider.

Chen Qi wins English Open Pro Tour

Chen executes his trademark backhand service receive

Finally, Chen Qi stepped out of the shadows of his illustrious team mates. He beat 2nd seed Ma Lin 11-5, 11-4, 11-13, 14-12, 11-4 in the finals of the English Open Pro Tour Table Tennis tournament.

Earlier, in the semi-finals, he beat the formidable Wang Liqin.

China is fielding most of its top players right from the start of the season at all the Pro tour tournaments starting from the Slovenian open. The top players again assemble for the other tournaments that follow soon. The aim seems to be to get them in shape for the World Individual championships at Rotterdam.

Player Profile: Sourav Saha

Sourav executes his powerful forehand topspin stroke

Sourav Saha is one of the most promising youngsters India has produced in the recent years. He was always in the shadows of Sathiyan, Soumyajit, and Harmeet for a while, but his performances this year in the Senior section have brought him applauds. With this, he has proved that he does belong to the elite league.

Sourav adopts a fast paced game and combines it with tremendously quick movement around the table. He does not hesitate to take risks and goes into an all out attack no matter who the opponent is. His double flanked attack helps him dominate his rivals in age categories as well as in the Men's section.

He beat his senior state mate and Commonwealth medallist, Soumyadeep Roy at Kolkata recently. Roy almost annexed the Men's title at the recently concluded Senior Nationals.

Name: Sourav Saha

Date of Birth: 10.08.1993

Club: Naihati Youth Association

Coaches/Trainers: Mr. Mihir Ghosh

TT Idol: Achanta Sharath kamal

Ambition: To win a medal for India at the Olympics

Achievements: Cadet National Champion, Sub-jr National Runners up, Junior Nationals semi-finalist, 10th place in World Cadet Challenge, Silver Medalist in Senior Nationals in Teams.

Best win (over a player): Soumyadeep Roy in Senior Nationals, Kolkata

Best win (a tournament): Cadet National Championship