Anthony Amalraj to be given Arjuna award

A Amalraj, who won the 2012 Indian National Championships, will be rewarded with the Arjuna Award for his accomplishments in his career. Amalraj has performed consistently from around 2010 at the international level and this news comes at around the right time.

Other International achievements by Amalraj are as follows:

Winner of Men's doubles silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow (partnering A Sharath Kamal). Winner of Bronze medals in team and mixed doubles at the 2010 Commonwealth games.

Winner of Gold medal in the Commonwealth Championships in 2015. Also, silver in men's singles and bronze in men's doubles. In the 2013 edition, he won a silver in the team event.

Photo courtesy of the ITTF.

Tomokazu Harimoto beats Timo Boll to create history at Czech open Table tennis tournament

Tomokazu Harimoto beat Timo Boll 11-3, 4-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-9 in the finals of the Czech open World Tour Table tennis tournament.

With this win at Olomouc, the Japanese prodigy became the youngest every player to win a World Tour (formerly Pro tour) tournament. Harimoto has already proved that he is a top player. He was ranked No. 18 recently. It is no surprise that the kid is unstoppable because his sights are set on the Olympic Games podium. The Tokyo Olympics 2020 will be held at Harimoto's home country. Although he needs a lot of big Championships experience, you never know with this courageous boy.

India in top 16 World Table Tennis teams

World no. 15! As a country, the Indian men's team is now inching towards the cream of World Table Tennis. After many many years, we are now in the top 16 countries! The Women's team is ranked no. 23.

The significance of a high ranking is that it can ensure automatic qualification in future World Team Championships if the players keep climbing.

India has had great performances right from the early decades of the last century. As a team, one of the noteworthy, world class performances was at the 1985 World Championships at Gothenburg, where India finished 12th.

Editor

www.TableTennisBug.com

(Photos courtesy of the ITTF and from Firstpost)

Top India Women Table Tennis players by World Ranking

The following are the top ranked Indian Women Table Tennis players by World Ranking:

Manika Batra is just out of the top 100. Mouma Das, Ayhika Mukherjee, and Madhurika Patkar follow next. Interestingly, Junior player Archana Kamath, is fifth in this list.

Top India Table Tennis players by World Ranking

The following are the top ranked Indian Men Table Tennis players by World Ranking:

India's pride, Achanta Sharath Kamal is 1st, followed by Harmeet Desai, Soumyajit Ghosh, and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran. Incidentally, this is the first time in recent decades that four Indian players feature in the top 100.

Pooja, Sathiyan win Inter Institutional Table Tennis Championships 2017

Pooja Sahasrabudhe Koparkar beat Madhurikaa Paatkar Torgalkar 4-0 in the Women's singles finals at the All India Inter Institutional Table Tennis Championships. 

In the Men's final match, in form Sathiyan Gnanasekaran beat Harmeet Desai in straight games.

Pictures courtesy of the ITTF.

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

Asia-Pacific Table Tennis league next season

Lucrative league  (approx 10 crore) announced in Asia-Pacific- The Asia-Pacific region will soon be home to the most lucrative professional table tennis league in the world, when the new T2 Asia-Pacific (T2 Apac) kicks off its inaugural season next year.

While the roster of players has yet to be finalised, the line-up of 24 is expected to feature some of the world’s best (12 men, 12 women) competing in men’s, women’s and mixed-team events.

Its prize purse of US$1.5 million (S$2.06 million) far surpasses any of the events on the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) professional circuit, with the World Tour Grand Finals the richest event at US$500,000.

Maharashtra State Ranking tournament at Thane

The 5th State Ranking Table Tennis Tournament of 2016 is being held at Thane's Raheja Complex, which is located opposite to Raheja Gardens. The tournament started on 3rd October and runs until 7th October 2016.

After this, the state season ends with the State Championships to be held at the Balewadi stadium at Pune from 18th to 23rd October.

Andhra Pradesh State Ranking tournaments 2016

The State level Ranking tournaments in Andhra Pradesh for 2016 are as follows:

July 8-10 Guntur State Ranking Tournament
August 13-15 or 19-21  Ananthapur State Ranking Tournament
September 2-4 Rajahmundry State Ranking Tournament
October 6-8 Vijayawada State Ranking Tournament
October 14-17 Eluru State Championship

Photo - Indian Express