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.
Sharath will be honoured with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, the country's highest sports recognition, later this month.
China's Ding Ning has claimed a second women's singles world title by battling through an ankle injury that left her in a heap to beat compatriot Liu Shiwen 4-3 in the final.
Some of the biggest surprises so far from the Tokyo Games.
Sharath Kamal settled for a creditable sixth spot after going down against South Korean Kim Minseok in a thriller at the 28th Asian Cup table tennis tournament in Jaipur on Saturday.
Manika Batra and Mouma Das made history by becoming the first Indian pair to reach the quarter-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships in Dusseldorf, on Thursday.
Chinese supporters have been visible and vocal.
Xu Xin and Feng Tianwei bagged the men's and women's singles title at the 28th Asian Cup table tennis tournament, beating their famed opponents in two high-quality finals at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday.
Meanwhile, teammate Udhayveer Sidhu also made it to the ranking matches but finished fourth to be eliminated. He was seventh in qualification with a score of 569.
Pint-sized 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya took gold in street skateboarding -- new to the Olympics in Tokyo -- while in one of the Games's staple sports a "Terminator" hunted down a dominator to set the swimming pool alight.
The four medals swelled India's tally to 20 medals including nine gold, three silver and eight bronze medals, in second place behind China, who have 18 gold for a grand total of 37 medals.
Defeats in sports dominated by China at previous Olympics have left the country in an unfamiliar third place on the medals table, with some predicting that Rio 2016 could witness the lowest haul in two decades.
BCCI's decision to not send Indian teams for the Asian Games drew sharp criticism from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Saturday, which accused the influential cricket board of treating the sport just as a business venture.
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