Manika Batra became the first Indian table tennis player to reach the round of 16 in the Olympics singles competition after thrashing higher-ranked Prithika Pavade of France in Paris on Monday.
All four who made the main draw of the World TT meet were beaten by higher-ranked opponents.
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.
Assam's Priyanuj Bhattacharya and J&K's Ritvik Gupta emerged victorious in the Under-19 and Under-17 Boys' Singles finals respectively at the Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships.
The Indian men's table tennis team rallied to defeat Slovakia 3-2 in a Group 7 match at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in London.
Diya Chitale and Manush Shah are the first-ever Indian pair to qualify for the prestigious WTT Finals to be held in Hong Kong in December.
Syndrela Das won the U-19 singles title after securing the Under-17 singles crown at the Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships. Karnataka's Tanishka Kalbhairav and Himanshi Chowdhary won the U-19 doubles title, while West Bengal's Ankolika Chakraborty and Ahona Ray won the U-17 title.
West Bengal defeated Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the Under-19 girls' team final at the 87th UTT Inter-State Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships.
Olympic-bound paddlers, Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das, will spearhead Indian challenge in men's and women's competitions respectively at the Swedish Open to be held at Helsingborg between June 7 and 12 and the Brazil Open at Santos from June 13 to 17.
India's top surfers and stand-up paddlers will compete in the inaugural Little Andaman Pro 2026 National Surf and SUP Championship, held in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from April 9 to 12. The event, organised by the Surfing Federation of India (SFI), aims to provide crucial competition experience ahead of the Asian Games.
Indian paddler Mudit Dani has entered the history books by becoming the first Indian to win the (NCTTA) Male Athlete of the Year award.
The Indian men's table tennis team of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Harmeet Desai started their Asian Games campaign on a resounding note, as they demolished Yemen 3-0.
India lost their last league match 1-3 to Bulgaria in the world table tennis championship
The men's table tennis team topped the group with an all-win record.
A seven-member team will form the Indian challenge for the May 19 to 25 event.
Not many Indian players will go as defending champions at the upcoming Commonwealth Games but the table tennis team has at least two, one as a team.
With a three-stage plan in place, Indian paddlers would be fully prepared for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year, feels national coach Bhawani Mukherjee.
It was largely made possible by Manika Batra, who ended up winning four medals, the most by an Indian in Gold Coast.
Ace Indian paddler Bhavinaben Patel progressed to the Round of 16 in the women's singles Class 4 table tennis event with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Great Britain's Megan Shackleton at the Tokyo Paralympics on Thursday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
Manika Batra is the first Indian woman paddler to break into the top-25 in table tennis world rankings.
The Indian started the match on the front foot as she took the first game 11-9
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 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.
The Indian paddlers marched steadily in the preliminary rounds in the individual events of the SAF Games.
The star Indian paddler is not taking too much pressure and wants to keep her focus.
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.
Indian paddlers were overawed by the enormity of the Olympics, says national coach Bhawani Mukherji, who feels that both Ankita Das and Soumyajit Ghosh should have focussed on their matches rather than wasting crucial time participating in the opening ceremony.
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.
Star Indian paddler Manika Batra shocked world No.14 Bernadette Szocs of Romania to enter the women singles quarterfinals of the WTT Champions event in Montpellier, France.
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.
India's Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Akash Pal won the men's doubles title beating French pair of Leo De Nodrest and Julles Rolland in straight games in just under 22 minutes at the WTT Contender event in Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and A Amalraj entered the men's singles second round but it was curtains for their women counterparts in the opening round itself as India made a mixed start at the Egypt Open table tennis tournament in Cairo.
Given a chance national women's table tennis champion Manika Batra is keen to get tips from her idol, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, ahead of her debut in next month's Rio Olympic Games.
Veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal made a shock exit from the Paris Olympics men's singles competition.
Soumyajit Ghosh has married his accuser after his career nose-dived owing to the crisis.
'Improvement is a continuous process and I am committed to it,' Manika Batra added.
Later in the day, the Indian women's doubles pair of Diya Chitale and Sreeja Akula will take on Korean combination of Jihee Jeon and Shin Yubin in the semi-finals.
Ayhika Mukherjee, ranked 155, punched way above her weight to pull off a brilliant 3-1 win against World No 1 Sun Yingsha.
