Table tennis: Sathiyan sets sights on World Championship medal after Asian bronze 

Indian paddlers - Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sharath Kamal, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar - created history on Monday after winning bronze medals. This is the country’s first medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships.

The Indian pairs of Sathiyan/Sharath and Harmeet/Manav lost their respective semi-final matches, ending the prestigious tournament with bronze medals.

This was the Indian paddlers’ second medal of the Asian Table Tennis Championships, having won a bronze medal earlier in the men’s team event.

Harmeet and Manav lost to South Korean fifth seeds of Woojin Jang and Jonghoon Lim 4-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8. The sixth-seeded pair of Sharath and Sathiyan lost to Japan’s Yukiya Uda and Shunsuke Togami 5-11, 9-11, 11-13.

Speaking to Sportskeeda from Doha, an elated Sathiyan said the Indian team was happy to tick the box off by winning a medal at the Asian Championships. He said:

“We knew this was the best chance for a medal. We have always come close in the past, like how we lost 2-3 to China in the quarter-finals. It has always been a case of being so close, yet so far and we are happy to have broken the barrier this time.

'The draw was easy, we were in good form. All of us in the team were playing well. Sometimes, we, as a team, do need these things to go in our favor and we are happy that it went.”

Sathiyan and Sharath faltered against Japan, a formidable pair who have grown in stature in the recent past.

“Against Japan, we have always had close encounters. The good showing, winning the medal does give us confidence to do well in the future. We beat them (the Japanese pair of Uda and Togami) a couple of years back but they are now a much-improved pair. We knew that it would be tough. They were extremely aggressive on their serve and receive and it was difficult to focus on.”

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Getting a little introspective, Sathiyan said the pair might have lost on upgrading their medal to silver or gold in the first couple of sets of the semi-final contest.

“It is very difficult against these players as once they open up; they are very lethal to combat. The initial pressure is what we need to put on them to beat them. Once they get into the groove, it is difficult to beat them. The start was a little bad and things would have been different had we beaten them in the second or the third set. That’s where, I think, we missed it.”

Sathiyan oozes in confidence after medal-winning outing

Sathiyan said the medal-winning campaign at the Asian Table Tennis Championships will go a long way in helping Indian paddlers. This win will help in shaping their confidence for the future.

Sathiyan’s next on the calendar are the Pro-Tours, with a WTT Contender tournament in Tunisia later this month. After that, there is another tournament in Slovenia. However, the Indian paddler has set his sights on winning a medal in the World Table Tennis Championships Final. That is scheduled to be held in Houston from November 23 this year.

“This medal gives us a lot of confidence going into the World Championships. We ticked the box by winning this elusive Asian Championship medal. We hope to tick the box at the World Championships too. We have a decent enough chance in the men’s doubles and in the mixed doubles too.”

Sathiyan feels he has grown in stature over the course of the tournament and especially in the last couple of months after the Tokyo Olympics. Giving an insight into how much he has improved as a player, Sathiyan said:

“Personally, I think I have become more aggressive on the table. Being able to compete stroke to stroke and being aggressive on first-balls are my major takeaways.

'Another important factor is the way I have been able to play at a good level, playing more matches in a single tournament is how we can improve and be more competitive. I am a player who gets better with more matches and going deep into tournaments is a huge confidence booster going into the World Championships.”

For now, Sathiyan is looking forward to a well-deserved break for a couple of weeks at home in Chennai after being on the road for the last eight weeks. He will look to rest before he sets out to hit giant strides again on the table.