How did Sathiyan Gnanasekaran perform at Tokyo Olympics? A detailed look at the Indian star's performance at the previous Olympic Games

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, India's top-ranked table tennis player, holds the distinction, ranking 89th in the world as of November 2022. He has competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, marking his debut appearance at the Summer Games.

Gnanasekaran did not enjoy a successful campaign, facing a surprising early exit in the second round of the table tennis event against Lam Siu Hang of Hong Kong.

While playing his first match at the Olympics, the Indian failed to make a strong start as he suffered a defeat in the first game by 7-11 in just 7 minutes. However, he bounced back strongly, winning the next three games.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran seemed poised to win in five games and advance to the third round of the men's singles event. Unfortunately, his performance stuttered in the subsequent three games, eventually suffering a 4-3 defeat.

In a match that lasted one hour and three minutes, the Indian's hopes of an Olympic medal were scrambled with a final score of 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-5, 9-11, 10-12, 6-11.

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Sathiyan Gnanasekaran's career in brief

Sathiyan, hailing from Chennai in Tamil Nadu, was part of the Indian team that clinched consecutive gold medals in the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast and Birmingham, respectively.

In May 2019, the 31-year-old reached his career-high world ranking of 24. With this rise in his rankings, he made history, becoming the first Indian table tennis player to break into the top 25 of the ITTF rankings.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran has also made history as the first Indian paddler to sign a deal with Okayama Rivets for the Japanese T-League. Currently, he is in association with JURA MOREZ for the French PRO-A league.

He has had a period of mediocre play since then, failing to obtain a Paris Olympics quota at the World Mixed Doubles Table Tennis Olympic Qualification competition in April. He and partner Manika Batra fell to a Malaysian duo with a global rating of 153.

However, Sathiyan, a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, has been named a reserve member of India's eight-person table tennis delegation, joining Ayhika Mukherjee. He will strive to offer his utmost whenever called upon in Paris.