World Championship:  Sathiyan enters round of 32

India’s G Sathiyan entered the men’s singles third round of 32 in the World Test Championships here on Wednesday with a score of 11-9, 11-9,11-8,11-6 victory over Vladimir Sideronko of Russia. However, Athiya Mukherjee lost to Hina Hayata of Japan by 5-11,4-11,3-11,4-11 in women’s singles first-round clash. Let’s have a look at the complete result of this and other matches in detail.

The results:Men: Singles (second round): G. Sathiyan bt Vladimir Sidorenko (Rus) 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6

       Doubles (first round): Bode Abiodun & Olajide Omotayo (Ngr) bt A. Amalraj & Harmeet Desai 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8.

Women: Singles (second round): Hina Hayata (Jpn) bt Ayhika Mukherjee 11-5, 11-4, 11-3, 11-4

Doubles (first round): Xin Ru Wong & Riu Xuan Goi (SGP) bt Sutirtha Mukherjee & Madhurika Patkar 11-3, 11-7, 11-4.

Indian table tennis has grown over the years with players like G Sathiyan, Achanta Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra, and Suthrita Mukherjee in the ranks and it was a good performance by these players in the recently concluded Olympics with Acantha Sharath Kamal giving tough time to Chinese table tennis legend Ma Long but eventually later came to the party and defeated Kamal but the Indian paddler received huge appreciation for his stupendous performance against Ma Long. Kamal has said several times on different media outlets the future of table tennis in India is bright as young players are coming up the ranks and they need the right platform and exposure to shine at the top level.

Table Tennis Federation of India is responsible for operating the sports in the country and apart from the best coaches that they already have they need to employ some coaches who can work at the grassroots level and identify talent at a young age and that player can be groomed for the long run.