Terming the incident unfortunate, the national carrier Air India has tendered an apology to the Indian table tennis team, who were denied boarding on the Delhi-Melbourne flight on Sunday.
The Indian contingent, comprising 17 players and officials, is scheduled to participate at the ITTF World Tour Australian Open starting in Melbourne on Monday.
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 Delhi High Court Monday sought the Centre's stand on a petition by Manika Batra, who was left out of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Asian Table Tennis Championships, assailing Table Tennis Federation of India's (TTFI) mandate of compulsory attendance at the National Coaching Camp in order to be selected.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) will make a fresh attempt to organise a training camp at the end of June but top players including Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan are not ready to travel anytime soon as the situation remains "unsafe".
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.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
India's leading table tennis player Sharath Kamal, who was ignored for Padma Shri, feels the existing awards application system makes the athletes beg for the honour.
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.
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.
Indian paddler G Sathiyan has qualified for his maiden Summer Games with a comfortable 4-0 win over Pakistan's Muhammad Rameez in the Asian Olympic Games Qualification Tournament in Doha.
Top Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal went down fighting to higher-ranked local contender Ryu Seung Min 3-4 in the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals in Seoul, South Korea on Saturday.
Ten Indians, including four women, made it to the main singles draw of the NCC Indian Open ITTF Pro Tour 2010 after the qualifying round at the Yamuna Sports Complex in Delhi, on Thursday. In the men's singles, Abhishek Ravichandran, Anirban Nandi, Sanil Shetty, Subhajit Saha, Amalraj Anthony Arputharaj and Sourav Chakraborty will join top seeded Indian Sharath Kamal in the main draw of 32 players.
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.
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.
Top Indian Achanta Sharath Kamal received a mauling from Dimitrij Ovtcharov in a lopsided semi-final and the German then downed Korean Seo Hyun Deok to lift the men's singles title in the ITTF Indian Open Pro Tour Table Tennis tournament, which concluded on Sunday.
Top seed Achanta Sharath Kamal advanced to the second round of men's singles in the NCC Indian Open ITTF Pro Tour tournament after an easy win over Ji Min Han of Korea in Delhi on Friday. The Indian ace defeated Ji Min 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 11-8, 11-4 at the Yamuna Sports Complex.
The 25-year-old, who shot to fame by becoming the second Indian to win an ITTF event -- the Belgium Open in 2016, is a strong medal hope in the Gold Coast Games starting April 4. He has also won a gold in the ITTF Challenge -- Spanish Open last year in the men's singles category.
Ace paddler Sharath Kamal, who clinched a historic mixed doubles bronze with Manika Batra at the Asian Games last year, feels the road to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics seems difficult in the newly-introduced category, but once the spot is booked, a medal win is possible.
The fifth seeded Indian ace will take on top seed Gao Ning of Singapore.
The ace Indian paddler is hoping to raise his game by turning out for the elite San Sebastian Club.
Shreya Ghosh upset top-seeded Li Chao of China in the ITTF Junior Circuit championship in China.
The ace Indian paddler was beaten by Jin Kwon Lee of Korea at the Brazil Open
Achanta Sharath Kamal became the India's first paddler to reach the semi-finals of an ITTF pro-tour event, at the Brazil Open.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
India's top paddler was beaten by Tang Peng of Hong Kong at the Singapore Open.
'I was expecting that (Khel Ratna) but there were other deserving athletes. It is fine. I will continue to strive for it'
The top women's table tennis player Zhang Yining broke her tailbone during a training session in Zhengding in Hebei province.
China has expelled four table-tennis players in accordance to an unwritten law in the country that bans romance while training.
India's Harmeet Desai went down against Tristan Floreof France in the Under 21 Men's Singles final at the $3.5 million ITTF World Tour Qatar Open in Doha.
Third seeded Indian pair of Harmeet Desai and Soumyajit Ghosh went down in the doubles final of the GAC Group ITTF World Tour Australian Open table tennis tournament in Gold Coast, Australia, on Saturday.
Achanta Sharath Kamal is hopeful that India will finish on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
The Chennai paddler feels that it's about time that he changes colour of the medal to gold during the upcoming edition in Gold Coast.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Indian table tennis players Soumyajit Ghosh and Manika Batra booked their Olympic tickets by winning their respective groups in the Asian Qualifiers in Hong Kong.
2019 became a 'Year to Remember' in Indian sports for trailblazing performances in Olympic disciplines
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
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.
India celebrated a rare moment of success in international table tennis as Soumyajit Ghosh clinched the Under-21 men's title while Manika Batra bagged the Under-21 women's trophy at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Brazil Open at Santos.
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