Ramu R By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: India’s highest-ranked table tennis player, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, recently participated in the All India Public Sector Table Tennis Tournament held at Jimmy George Sports hub. He bagged a first in the team championship (singles) match held at the venue on Sunday. This was not Sathiyan’s first time in the city. “I have played in Thiruvananthapuram five years ago. But this is the first time that I’m involved in a public sector table tennis tournament in the city,” he said. Sathyan’s exploits this year included reaching the quarterfinal stage of the Asian Table Tennis Championship held in Indonesia. Even though he didn’t win a medal at the tournament, Sathiyan became the only Indian player to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament after a gap of 43 years. “The achievement was a big morale booster for the table tennis fraternity in the country,’’ said Sathiyan. Presently, he is busy preparing for the (International Table Tennis Federation) ITTF Men’s World Cup which will be held in Chengdu, China from November 29. As part of his preparations, Sathiyan will be practicing with Shen Yaohuan, a Chinese table tennis player at the Raman TT high-performance centre in Chennai. Sathiyan is also a regular for ASV Grunwettersbach, the club he represents in the German table tennis league. However, winning a medal for India at the Olympics and coming in the ITTF top ten rankings are the two big goals that Sathiyan has set for himself. He hopes to achieve the targets by working on his game. Looking back at his career which saw him jump from 400 to 30 in the ITTF world rankings, Sathiyan is confident that he will achieve more. “I have confidence in my game although there is scope for further improvement,’’ said Sathiyan. As Asian countries such as Japan, China and Korea are more superior in table tennis, Sathiyan plans to attend more camps in these countries to improve his skills. “I’m also working on my service and receives with coach Raman” said Sathiyan. Hailing from a middle-class family that did not have a background in sports, Sathiyan started playing table tennis due to the insistence of his mother. A table tennis center near Sathiyan’s home in Chennai also proved a decisive factor. “I had started going to the centre from the age of five as my mother wanted me to get involved in a physical activity,’’ said Sathyan. His talent in table tennis was obvious from the age of six or seven. An Arjuna awardee, Sathiyan has won three medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. He expressed his hope that the Ultimate Table Tennis League which was launched a few years ago in India would become popular.

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