Veteran table tennis player A Sharath Kamal on Friday said he was "pretty surprised" at being named India's flagbearer at the Paris Olympics ahead of people like Tokyo Games gold-winner Neeraj Chopra and described the honour as a recognition of his years of toil.
India's leading player Sharath Kamal overcame a sluggish start to beat Portugal's Tiago Apolonia in the men's singles second round, while the women challenge ended with Manika Batra and Sutirtha Mukherjee losing to their superior opponents at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
India's tally to two medals with one silver and one bronze.
KSCA T20 auction saw Indian international batter Devdutt Padikkal lead the charts as the most expensive player of the day,
Star Indian paddler Manika Batra crashed out of the women's singles in the World Table Tennis Championships Finals after a first round defeat, while Sathiyan Gnanasekaran advanced to the second round in the men's singles, in Houston, on Wednesday.
Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra became the first Indian pairing to qualify for the mega event in Tokyo, beating World No. 8 duo of Sang-Su Lee and Jihee Jeon 4-2 in the final of the Asian Qualification Tournament in Doha.
Veterans Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan made a winning start at the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban on Sunday.
Manika Batra went down fighting to Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico 3-4 in the round of 32 at the World Table Tennis Championships in Durban.
Tokyo Olympics bronze-winning boxer Lovlina Borgohain's allegations of "disrespectful and gender-discriminatory behaviour" against national federation's executive director Col Arun Malik are being investigated.
Sharath Kamal struggled in the first game but pulled himself up just in time to beat Portugal's Tiago Polonia 2-11, 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 in 49 minutes.
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.
'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.'
Slipping out of the usual top-five was seen as a real possibility in absence of shooting but phenomenal success in athletics and lawn bowls propelled India to a commendable fourth place finish at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Avinash Sable's national mark headlines strong showing in IGP 2
The ace Indian paddler was beaten by Jin Kwon Lee of Korea at the Brazil Open
Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal stunned world No 31 Patrick Baum of Germany in a gruelling seven-setter to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the IITF World Tour Polish Open at Poznan.
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.
India's top paddler upset world number 24 Zoran Primorac of Croatia in the Spanish League tie.
The Indian paddler was beaten by world number 21 Petr Korbel in the men's singles pre-quarter-final match at the Chile Open.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
The former beat defending champion Subhajit Saha to win the men's singles title while defending champion Mouma Das beat top seed Poulomi Ghatak to retain her crown.
Achanta Sharath Kamal became the India's first paddler to reach the semi-finals of an ITTF pro-tour event, at the Brazil Open.
He beat Xiao Li Cai of Singapore in the table tennis men's singles quarter-finals at the Commonwealth Games.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal faced some stiff resistance before getting the better of Mikhail Gladyshev 4-1 and stormed into the men's singles quarter-finals of the Egypt Open table tennis championships while all his compatriots crashed out in Cairo on Saturday.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal on Sunday closed in on his second successive international title when he defeated Jiang Tianyi of Hong Kong 4-1 to storm into final of the Egypt Open table tennis championships in Cairo.
Top seed Achanta Sharath Kamal overcame a stiff resistance from unseeded Sanil Shetty of Air India to emerge champion in the Inter Institutional Table Tennis Championship at Ajmer on Sunday.
The Indian men's team settled for the bronze medal after suffering a 0-3 defeat to Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals of the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Astana, on Thursday.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal went down fighting to Gionis Panagiotis of Greece in a third round match as India's campaign in the World Table Tennis Championships in Yokohama, Japan, ended on Friday. World number 85 Sharath lost 12-10, 9-11, 11-13, 13-11, 8-11, 8-11.
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.
For the first time in Olympic history, the Opening Ceremony is being held on the banks of the river Seine. More than 6,500 athletes in around 90 boats will sail past the iconic monuments of Paris.
Kannada actress Ranya Rao's stepfather, Director General of Police Ramchandra Rao, has been sent on compulsory leave.
Rohit Sharma's poor form in red-ball cricket continued as he fell for a 19-ball 3 before Mumbai conceded a first-innings lead against Jammu and Kashmir
India's top paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal beat Segun Toriola of Nigeria 11-6, 15-13, 11-8, 11-3 in the semi-final
Indian paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and K Shamini have failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the 26th Table Tennis Asian Cup, being played at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal and new woman national champion Poulomi Ghatak were among four Indian paddlers who have qualified for the main draw of Pro Tour Qatar Open in Doha.
Top seed Achanta Sharath Kamal laboured to the semi-finals of the men's singles in the NCC Indian Open ITTF Pro Tour tournament with a hard-earned win over Young Sik Jung of Korea in Delhi on Saturday. Sharath defeated Sik Jung 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10 in the quarter-finals at the Yamuna Sports Complex in Delhi.
He beat Portugal's Tiago Apolonia at the Chile Open table tennis tournament.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Chen Chien-An of Chinese Taipei in the first round and bowed out of the World Table Tennis Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The world No 54 lost 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 7-11, 9-11.
India's Achanta Sharath Kamal came up with a splendid performance to shock top seed Li Ching of Hong Kong and win the Egypt Open Table Tennis Championships in Cairo on Sunday. The sixth seeded Indian Olympian won 11-5,11-6,14-16,12-10,11-9 to claim his second successive title in as many weeks, having won the US Open last Sunday, beating Keineth Thomas of Slovakia in Michigan.
