Sanil Shetty wins US Open U-21 Crown

Maharashtra's star player, Sanil Shetty won the prestigious US Open title for Boys U 21. India earned more bragging rights when juniors Spoorthi and Utkarsh Gupta won the U 13 Girls and Boys titles.

Sharath Kamal progressed to the semi-finals of the blue ribbon event, the Men's Singles. He will also figure in the Men's doubles semi-finals along with partner Subhajit Saha. Subhajit lost in the Quarters, while Anthony Amalraj too made an exit in an earlier round but not before giving a big scare to the top seed, Keinath Thomas.

Koparkar Scores and Emphatic Title Win

Aniket Serves with intense concentration in this file photo

Pune's Aniket Koparkar, won the 3rd State Ranking Tournament at the University Pavilion (Marine Lines). In the finals, he beat top seed Aman Balgu of Mumbai 4-0 (Details to follow).

What is more heartening is that Koparkar trashed his close rivals Balgu and Martand Biniwale (against whom he had a narrow loss last year) without losing a single game. This augurs well for the coming National tournament season that is soon slated to start.

Martand Biniwale won the Youth Boy's singles title, while Devdutt Phadnavis of Nagpur bagged the Junior Boy's singles title.

2nd State Ranking Tournament at Dombivali

 Sanika showing off her well-earned trophies in a file photograph

Sanika Divekar, Sanish Ambekar in the Sub Junior Girls and Boys, and Ajaysingh Patil and Shruti Amrute in the Cadet Boys and Girls won the first titles at stake at the 2nd State Ranking Tournament at Thane (Dombivali).

For detailed results, please visit the MSTTA results page

Sharath Shines Again

It was the mighty Sharath again at the Indian open TT tournament! When it mattered most, Sharath Kamal pulled off some big winners to beat Patrick Baum, ranked as high as 34 in the world. Sharath is currently ranked 91, so this win will bring big points.

Now his fans want more and let's hope that he pulls off another big win (albeit a very very difficult one) against the powerful World No. 13 Dimitrij Ovtcharov. The battle is expected to be a hard one with both being hard hitters. Ovtcharov with his double flank attacks and Sharath with his largely powerful forehand strokes promise a scintillating fare. Fans on Facebook are already thrilled with his current achievement. But we all know Sharath wants to go two steps further and make this his best pro tour achievement to date.

Launching First Unofficial Ratings List of Maharashtra Table Tennis Elite Players

 We are pleased to announce the first Unofficial Ratings List of Table Tennis Elite Players of Maharashtra.

Please note that this is not an official Rating or Ranking list. For the Official Rankings, please visit www.mstta.org or call MSTTA office for more details.

How to read the List:
Example: 3. Aniket Koparkar 2360
No. 3 in Strength is Aniket Koparkar at 2360 Rating (remember, it is not Ranking Points)

Notes:

The list has been prepared using a complex formula to come up with playing strength.

You will observe some potential discrepancies, for example, we truly believe Martand is much stronger than his current rating, but his activity and consistency require some improvement.

This Ratings list is subject to change without prior notice. We are in the process of gathering feedback from prominent personalities in the Table Tennis world.

Rating list is very different from Ranking lists. Ratings depict strength. Ratings Central is one famous rating list available on the internet for International players.

With a Ratings List, it is possible to compare the strength of play of any individual. So, in due course of time, we will have Women, Juniors and so on in the same list. One can compare for academic purposes, the playing strength of any player.

Player Profile: Arpit Bhopalkar

Arpit in Action Away from the Table

Name: Arpit Bhopalkar

Place: Indore, Madhya Pradesh (India)

Club: Happy Wanderers, Abhay Prashal

Coach/Trainer: Srikant Mandwikar

TT Achievements: 

World Railways (Moscow) Champion

World Railways Team Champions

Junior Nationals Bronze

Represented India in Asian Juniors

SAF Junior Gold Medal

Sr Nationals Quarterfinals

Ranked Jt No.1 in Cadet, No. 2 in Sub Juniors and No. 6 in Juniors

MP State Champion

Favourite Player: Jan Ove Waldner and Ryu Seung Min

Weapon of Choice: Forehand topspin

TT Ambition: To represent India (Senior team), to win medals at International level for India.

Hobby: Music, Playing Guitar, and Comedy.

Player Profile: Eric Fernandes (Mumbai, Maharashtra - India)

Eric in Top Form (Sorry Dheeraj, Your Time Will Come)
 

Eric Fernandes has been in good nick the whole of last season culminating in his being included in the Maharashtra A team with the strong line up. Incidentally, they won the silver medal.

Eric is strength personified while in action on the table.

Here is a brief profile of this very strong player, an asset on any elite team.

Name: Eric Fernandes

Club: YMCA, Andheri

Table Tennis Achievements:
2001 - Bronze Medal in Junior Nationals
2001 - Silver Medal in Junior Nationals - Team Event
2007 - Maharashtra State Champion
2009 - Silver Medal in Team Event Nationals (Men's)
           5 Times Winner in District Teams                                                                                                

Coaches: Deepak Mani

Favourite Player: Saurav Chakraborty!

Weapon of Choice: Forehand Topspin

TT Ambition: To play for India.

Hobby: Reading

Player Profile: Sanil Shetty (Mumbai Maharashtra, India)

Sanil Shetty is making waves at the National level and is slowly but surely also shining on the international turf. Just last week, he won the first state ranking tournament at Dhule, Maharashtra.

Here's a brief profile of this energetic and young star.

Name: Sanil Shetty

Club: Andheri YMCA, Matunga Gymkhana

Table Tennis Achievements:
2004 - Sub Junior National Champion
2004 - Canada (Teams) Gold Medal
2006 - SAF Juniors Gold Medal
2006 - Junior National Champion, 3 times Nationals Champion in Doubles
2008 - Youth Nationals Team Gold Medal
2009 - Youth Nationals Team Gold Medal
2009 - Winner, Men's Singles, West Zone National level tournament
2009 - Winner, Youth Singles, West Zone National level tournament
2009 - Kuwait Open U-21 Quarterfinals (Beat World No. 13)
World No. 93 highest Ranking in Under-21.

Coaches: Deepak Mani, Kamlesh Mehta

Favourite Player: Timo Boll, Jun Mizutani

Weapon of Choice: Forehand Topspin

TT Ambition: To participate in the Olympics and win a medal for India.

Hobby: Playing Video Games

Final Day Highlights at Dhule State Ranking Table Tennis tournament

Youth Boy's Finals
Dheeraj Rai (MSD) beat Chandrashekhar Gole (MSD) 11-9,8-11,11-7,8-11,11-7,4-11,11-7

Youth Girl's Finals
Senora D'Souza (MCD) beat Shweta Parte (MCD) 5-11,11-4,11-7,11-8,11-9

Women's Finals
Pooja Sahasrabuddhe (Thane) beat Prajakta Tipale (Thane) 11-9,10-12,11-6,11-8,9-11,11-7

Men's Singles Finals
Sanil Shetty (MSD) beat Aniket Koparkar (Pune) 11-8,8-11,11-9,9-11,11-3,11-8

India wins Gold at South Asian Table Tennis

Dehradun

The Indian Junior team won the Gold at the South Asian Table Tennis games held at Dehradun. The girls followed suit by winning the other team title at stake.

G Sathiyan beat Harmeet Desai to win the Boy's singles title, while Mallika Bhandarkar beat eternal nemesis Ankita Das to bag the Girl's singles title.

Utkarsh Gupta won the Cadet boy's crown, while Anushka Datta won the girl's gold medal.

All in all, it was a clean gold and silver sweep for India. Sri Lanka won the silver and bronze medals where possible. India was allowed to field only 1 or 2 entries in the singles and doubles events. We'll see this happen in the international Men's level too, where China stares at a possibility of losing sure shot medal sweeps in the Olympic games.