Recently-retired Indian table tennis great A Sharath Kamal has given himself 11 years to produce the country's first Olympic medallist in the racket sport and German football club Borussia Dortmund could end up being his unlikely ally in pursuit of this path-breaking dream.
Indian table tennis legend A Sharath Kamal has announced that the WTT Contender Chennai, scheduled for March 25-30, will be his last tournament as a professional athlete.
'Improvement is a continuous process and I am committed to it,' Manika Batra added.
'For the next nine months to one year I would still be an active player.'
'Paris 2024 was the first time that both the men's and women's team qualified for the team championships.' 'The women's team made it to the quarter-finals, just one short of the medal round, and the men's team also did well.' 'The mixed doubles is another event where India is doing very well.' 'So these three events are events where there is a possibility of us winning medals at the Olympics.'
National champion Harmeet Desai, ranked 86th in the world in men's singles, is seeded 49th. He will make his Olympic debut.
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Indian table tennis duo of G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai notched up a dominating 3-1 win over Emmanual Lebesson and Alexandre Cassin in the summit clash to claim the men's doubles title at the WTT Contender Tunis on Saturday.
Sharath will be honoured with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, the country's highest sports recognition, later this month.
40-year-old Sharath showed that age was just a number.
It said it was also cancelling all veterans tour events and Table Tennis X events for the entire year while looking into cost-cutting measures to meet the financial challenges.
Kamal had lifted the Oman Open last month and took a leap of seven spots in the latest senior men's rankings released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to grab the 31st position.
The ITTF Executive Committee met on Sunday to further discuss the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on the international table tennis event schedule.
Stuck indoors and without a training partner during India's coronavirus lockdown, the country's top table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran says he is staying sharp by practising with a robot. The governing International Table Tennis Federation has suspended all of its events and activities until June 30 and the three-week lockdown in force in India has disrupted the daily routines of athletes like Sathiyan.
Sathiyan, making his World Cup debut, went down 1-4 (11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 9-11, 8-11) to the German in the pre-quarters.
Seventeen-year-old Harmeet Desai, of Gujarat clinched the Joola Austria Junior and Cadet Open title at Linz, Austria beating compatriot Soumyajit Ghosh in a hard-fought five-game match.
Ace Indian paddlers Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha will feature in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Pro Tour Grand Finals that gets underway in Seoul from December 16-19.
Mulls scrapping individual world championships
'I would like to thank the Government, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and most importantly, my family, who has been there for me and motivated me along this journey'
Justice Rekha Palli, who was hearing Batra's petition alleging that the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) was carrying out its selection processes in a non-transparent manner and targeting certain individuals such as herself, said that based on the committee's report, she would consider the issue of appointing an administrator to run the national sports body.
Bhavinaben Patel scripted history on Friday, becoming the first Indian table tennis player to secure a medal in the Paralympics after entering the semi-finals with a stunning straight-game win over world No. 5 Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia in the women's singles Class 4 event, in Tokyo. The 34-year-old won her quarter-final 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 in 18 minutes.
The high court had on September 23 stayed the TTFI's rule mandating compulsory attendance at the National Coaching Camp for selection in international events and had asked the Centre to conduct an inquiry into Batra's complaint against the sports body. On Friday, the court was informed by the Centre's counsel Apoorv Kurup that the enquiry report was ready and the judge asked them to file it in a sealed cover before it.
The two Koreas will field a combined women's team at the table tennis world championships after the nations decided not to compete against each other in the quarter-finals, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) said on Thursday.
The Serb set up the breakaway PTPA on the eve of the US Open in September and resigned as head of the player council but last month he confirmed that he had been nominated by his fellow professionals for the current elections which he accepted.
Soumyajit Ghosh has married his accuser after his career nose-dived owing to the crisis.
While Indian table tennis took giant strides in the year, a star too was born with Manika Batra pocketing as many as four medals including two historic gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Here is the current state of play among the 28 Olympic sports.
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