Sharath Kamal, India's finest ever table tennis player, says he might have played the best match of his almost two-decade career despite ending on the wrong side of the result against the mighty Ma Long at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
Swede Anders Johansson's decision to turn down the offer of coaching the Indian table tennis team is set to affect the country's paddlers' preparation for the upcoming international tournaments and more importantly the 2012 London Olympics.
Batra will now take on Singapore's Jian Zeng in the last eight-clash later tonight.
Ace Indian paddler Sharath Kamal on Saturday advanced to the second round of the ITTF Kuwait Open Super Series table tennis tournament after a 4-2 victory over Hampus Soderlund of Sweden in Kuwait City.
China moved one step away from a second successive clean sweep of Olympic table tennis golds when their women marched to a 3-0 victory over a young Japanese team at the London Games on Tuesday.
India's young duo of Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das are hoping to make waves at their first Olympics, but admitted finding it tough to keep their excitement in check as they live their dream of performing at the London Games.
India's foreign table tennis coach Leszek Kucharski feels Olympic-bound paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das can spring a few surprises but they are not among the favourites to win a medal in the London Games.
Indian junior paddlers on Monday made a sweep of the team titles in all the four categories of boys and girls, in the ongoing 12th SAF Junior Table Tennis Championships held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex indoor stadium in Shillong.
Sathiyan rose four spots to be placed 24th in the latest ITTF rankings, following his impressive sixth place finish in the Asia Cup in Yokohama earlier this month. Last week, he was the sole Indian to reach the round of 32 in the World Championships in Hungary.
The Indian challenge at the Volkswagen 2012 World Junior table tennis championships came to an end when Ayhika Mukerjee and Suthirtha Mukherjee lost their respective pre-quarterfinal matches in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Star Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal and national champion Anthony Amalraj failed to book a berth for the upcoming London Games after crashing out of the World Olympic Qualification Table Tennis Tournament in Doha, Qatar.
Bengal paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das booked their London Olympics berths on the concluding day of the Asian Olympic Qualification Table Tennis Tournament in Hong Kong, but it was a real heartbreak for top paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal.
The boxers say they are seeing a focus on the players and their needs for the first time in years
The contingent comprises 277 men and 247 women athletes. In the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, the Indian contingent featured 541 athletes across 28 disciplines.
'The win will change a lot of things in Praggu... the confidence in his potential will be one of them. The win has ensured a lot of visibility which will give him a lot of opportunities.'
Hyderabad will host the World Table Tennis Championship scheduled in 2013, TTFI general secretary Dhanraj Choudhary said on Sunday.
In the absence of big names of Indian table tennis, the onus will be on the teenaged duo of Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das to deliver the goods at the London Olympics.
Soumyajit Ghosh's qualification for the London Olympics has taken everyone by surprise. But the Siliguri paddler knows that it will not be a stroll in the park when it comes down to facing European and Chinese giants in London.
Prajnesh is now ranked 102 in the men's singles rankings with a jump of seven places while Ankita leapfrogged 35 places to a career-high 168 in the women's singles.
India's representation in the singles events of the World Table Tennis Championship was reduced to just four players, three of them women, after six others failed to qualify for the main draw.
The Achanta Sharath Kamal-Poulomi Ghatak and Soumyadeep Roy-Mouma Das pairs went down after a fine showing in the table tennis event at the Asian Games.
India's campaign at the China Open Super Series Table Tennis ended after Neha Aggarwal lost to Viktoria Pavlovich 0-4 in the women's singles in Changchun, on Friday.
Family members and friends of paddler Bhavina Patel broke into the traditional 'garba' dance, burst firecrackers and smeared each other with 'gulal' at her native Sundhiya village in Gujarat's Mehsana district to celebrate her historic silver medal at the Paralympic Games.
India cricket captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu were on Monday recommended for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna by the awards selection committee.
India endured another disappointing day in table tennis competitions at the Asian Games with only the men's doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha progressing to the pre-quarters stage at the Guangzhou Gymnasium in Guangzhou on Tuesday.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal was among three Indians who qualified for the men's singles quarter-finals, even as the Indian women's challenge in the individual events ended in the Commonwealth Games Table Tennis competition on Monday. Besides Sharath, A Amalraj and Soumyadeep Roy also entered the last-eight stage.
After being handed out easy draws, Indian paddlers are brimming with confidence ahead of the table tennis team event of the Commonwealth Games starting in New Delhi on Monday.
Two more Australian athletes have pulled out of the Commonwealth Games in India citing security and health concerns, adding to the growing list of withdrawals from next month's showpiece event.
Hoping for an improved performance in next month's table tennis World Championships in Rotterdam, Indian paddlers will undergo a 21-day training camp in China from April 16 to May 6.
India's Ankita Das fought valiantly and stretched World No 10 China's Ruochen Gu to six games before losing in the quarter-finals of the Volkswagen World Junior Table Tennis Championships, in Bahrain on Sunday.
Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag, Paralympic silver-medallist Deepa Malik and hockey stalwart Sardar Singh were on Friday included in a 12-member committee constituted by the sports ministry to select this year's National Sports Awards winners. Just like last year, the ministry opted for a single selection committee to pick the awardees among both athletes and coaches and it will be headed by Retired Supreme Court Justice, Mukundakam Sharma.
India's national table tennis coach Massimo Constantini expects his wards to do well in next month's Asian Championship in Lucknow to boost their confidence ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games.
The athletes were unable to enter Australia due to government restrictions on foreign nationals travelling from China.
Coaches Jayanta Pushilal and S Raman have been nominated for the Dronacharya honour.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) on Tuesday termed Manika Batra's decision to not take the help of national coach Soumyadeep Roy during her matches at the Tokyo Olympics as a brazen 'act of indiscipline'.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal's impressive form helped Indian men register their second successive victory, while their women counterparts continued their dismal performance in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow on Monday.
The Indians had to make the 5-1 lead count in the first game to have any chance in the match but Lin and Cheng won eight points in a row to gain control.
Indian paddlers endured a mixed day in individual Table Tennis events of the Asian Games with only Kumaresan Shamini making it to the second round of the mixed and women's singles event in Guangzhou on Monday.
Indian paddlers got off to a spectacular start in the World Table Tennis Championship as all six, including new women's national champion Kumaresan Shamini, spanked their respective opponents 4-0 in their opening matches of the qualifying rounds in Yokohama, Japan, on Tuesday.
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