Sharath Kamal

Achanta Sharath Kamal (born 12 July 1982) is an Indian professional table tennis player. He is the first Indian table tennis player ever to become nine times Senior National Champion hence breaking the record of eight times National Champion Kamlesh Mehta. In 2019 he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.[4]

Sharath Kamal
Kamal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, New Delhi
Personal information
Full nameSharath Kamal Achanta[1]
Born (1982-07-12) 12 July 1982
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Playing styleRight-handed, shakehand grip
Highest ranking30 (2019)[2]
Current ranking32 (Aug 2021)[3]
Height1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight82 kg (181 lb; 12.9 st)
Medal record
Men's table tennis
Representing  India
Commonwealth Games
2006 Melbourne Men's singles
2006 Melbourne Men's team
2010 Delhi Men's doubles
2010 Delhi Men's team
2018 Gold Coast Men's team
2018 Gold Coast Men's doubles
2018 Gold Coast Men's singles
2018 Gold Coast Mixed doubles
Asian Games
2018 Jakarta Men's team
2018 Jakarta Mixed doubles
Asian Championships
2021 Doha Men's team
2021 Doha Men's doubles

His ITTF world ranking is 32 as of May 2021. He beat Joo Se Hyuk and Chuang Chih-yuan, world no. 8 and 16 respectively in 2015 28th Asian cup at Jaipur.[5] Sharath won the men's singles gold in the 16th Commonwealth table tennis championship held at Kuala Lumpur in 2004. He is a recipient of the Arjuna award for the year 2004.[6] He currently lives in Düsseldorf, Germany. Over the past few years he has been playing in the European league. After stints in Spain and Sweden, he is currently playing in the German Bundesliga for the club Borussia Düsseldorf.

He has won the US Open Table Tennis Men's championships held at Grand Rapids, Michigan in July 2010. During the course of the tournament he went on to defeat the defending champion Thomas Keinath of Slovakia in an epic battle of 7 games to win 4–3. In the same year he won the Egypt Open beating Li Ching of Hong Kong in straight sets 11–7, 11–9, 11–8, 11–4; thus becoming first Indian to win a singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour.[7] He also captained the Indian men's team that won the team title at the same championship by defeating favourites and nine-time champions England.

He also won the gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, beating crowd favourite Australian William Henzell in the final, apart from helping the Indian team clinch gold in the table tennis team event against Singapore. He teamed up with Subhajit Saha to win the Men's Doubles gold[8] at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He won three medals in 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, gold in men's team event with Anthony Amalraj, Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & Sanil Shetty silver in men's doubles with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & bronze in men's singles event.[9][10][11]

He represented India in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and is still the top Indian TT player. He also represented the country in the 2006 Asian Games at Qatar.

In the year 2007 he was the first Indian to win the Pyongyang Invitational Tournament held at Pyongyang, North Korea. This was the 21st edition of the tournament which was held in August 2007. His best performance on the world circuit came in the Japan Pro Tour held in June 2007 where he beat World No.19, Lee Jung Woo (South Korea). After this victory he reached his career best ranking of World No. 73 and in January 2011 his ranking is 44. Incidentally, Sharath was also the only Indian Men's Table Tennis player to be selected for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

In the season 2010–11 he also played in the German major league (Bundesliga) for TSV Gräfelfing and has been one of the best players in the league with wins over top German TT players. He played for SV Werder Bremen in the 2011–12 season. During 2012–13, he played in the Swedish league before returning to Germany in May 2013 to sign for Borussia Düsseldorf. Known as the "Rekordmeisters", Borussia Düsseldorf is one of the best clubs in Europe. Sharath and the team also won the Deutsche Pokal for the year 2013, a prestigious cup tournament in Germany. Currently the team is ranked second in the Bundesliga season 2013–14.

Sharath qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics after beating Iran's Noshad Alamian in the Asian Olympic qualification.[12] However, he made a first round exit in the men's individual event losing to Adrian Crișan of Romania.[13] He is an alumnus of PSBB Nungambakkam school[14] (class of 2000) and Loyola College, Chennai.[6][15] He is employed with the Indian Oil Corporation as an officer.[16]

Early career

Sharath was introduced to Table Tennis by his father at the age of 4. Sharath's father along with his uncle Muralidhar Rao taught him the technicalities of the game and groomed him to be a professional paddler.

Sharath couldn't handle his mental attitude as he would always want to win rather than accepting the defeat. The defeat was something that he would often get frustrated at. His father and uncle helped him in mental conditioning. Sharath's uncle had made a strict rule for him so that he could deal with his frustration. He had spent his time practicing Table Tennis with his uncle before and after school every day. At the age of 16, Sharath Kamal began his professional career and took part in state-level competitions. Sarath Kamal has always been in top form ever since his foray into professional table tennis.

After his success at state meets, Sharath advanced to the national level. In 2003, Sharath became the National Champion for the first time at the National Table Tennis Championships.

Career

2003

The national call-up finally came on the eve of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, where he was selected for a 16-member probables training camp. It was the break Sharath Kamal needed to launch his career at the age of 20.

2004

Sharath's first international medal at the 2004 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships where he won men's singles and men's team event. His career graph reached a new high when he qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Sharath made his Olympics debut at 2004 Summer Olympics. He defeated Mohamed Sofiane Boudjadja of Algeria in first round 11–4,12-10,11-6,11-13,11-7 but bowed out in second round losing to Ko Lai Chak of Hong Kong 11–9,11-5,11-9,11-6.

2005

Sharath made his world championships debut at 2005 World Table Tennis Championships but lost in the first round to Chinese legend Wang Liqin 11–8,11-8,11-5,9-11 and 11–8.

2006

Sharath made his Commonwealth Games debut at Table Tennis at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He paired up with Soumyadeep Roy for men's doubles but lost in the quarter-finals to Andrew Baggaley and Andrew Rushton 8–11,12-10,7-11,11-6 and 4–11. But Sharath went to win the gold medal in the singles category defeating William Henzell of Australia 11–5,8-11,5-11,11-8,11-8,7-11,11-8. Then won the gold the medal in men's team event defeating Team of Singapore in the final 3–2. In December, Sharath made his Asian Games debut at 2006 Asian Games. He was 13th seed, received bye to Round of 32. He beat Đoàn Kiến Quốc of Vietnam 11–6,11-7,13-15,11-5,11-9 in round of 32. In doubles,Sharath bowed out in the pre-quarters losing to Chiang Peng-lung 5–11,5-11,8-11,4-11. He was ousted in round of 32 losing 9–11,9-11,9-11 losing to Vietnamese pair where he paired with Soumyadeep Roy. In the team event, He won two matches and lost two matches. Eventually, his team finished third in the group unable to advance to further round.

2007

In the year 2007 he was the first Indian to win the Pyongyang Invitational Tournament held at Pyongyang, North Korea. This was the 21st edition of the tournament which was held in August 2007. His best performance on the world circuit came in the Japan Pro Tour held in June 2007 where he beat World No.19, Lee Jung Woo (South Korea). In the world Championships, Sharath once again had a first round exit like his last appearance losing to seed no. 28 Polish Lucjan Błaszczyk 8–11,6-11,9-11,9-11. In the doubles event, he paired with Soumyadeep Roy and went on to beat Austrian pair of Stefan Fegerl and Werner Schlager 11–4,6-11,9-11,11-9,11-8. This was his first ever match win in world Championships, But lost in the second round to Serbian pair of Aleksandar Karakašević and Slobodan Grujić 12–10,11-5,11-6,11-3. In the mixed doubles event, he paired up with Poulomi Ghatak but lost in the first round to Xu Xin and Guo Yan 9–11,13-11,5-11,4-11 and 6–11.

2008

Sharath qualified for 2008 Olympics. He beat Alfredo Carneros of Spain in first round 4-2. But lost to Chen Weixing of Austria 1-4.

2020

Sharath won the 2020 ITTF Challenger Plus Oman Open men’s singles title. He outclassed top seeded Marcos Freitas of Portugal 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 3-11, 17-15 in a 1 hour long final. This was his 1st title in 10 years. [17]

2021

In March 2021, Sharath played at WTT Star Contender Doha, where he upset Patrick Franziska in the round of 32.[18] But lost to Dimitrij Ovtcharov in next round in straight games 3-0.

2022

He competed at the 1st ever wtt grand smash, the Singapore Smash 2022. He had a 1st round exit in singles after losing to Anton Källberg whereas in doubles he paired up Sathiyan Gnanasekaran but lost to Lim Jong-hoon and Jang Woo-jin 0-3. He bagged a bronze at WTT Contender Doha 2022. Kamal faced upcoming Chinese Star Yuan Licen in the semi-finals which became a 1 hour long hard fought match which he eventually lost 4-3(5-11,11-8,6-11,11-7,11-5,10-12 and 9-11).[19]

Club Career

After playing for San Sebastian in the Spanish league for a while, he moved to the German Tischtennis-Bundesliga for TSV Gräfelfing in the 2010/2011 season. In March 2011 he played for the Bundesliga club SV Werder Bremen, which he left in 2012 for Italy to join the first division club Siracusa. However, since this dissolved and Sharath Kamal could not join a new club because the change period had expired, he kept fit as a non-club at the Trainingszentrum DTTZ in Düsseldorf. In 2013, Borussia Düsseldorf signed him for a year to replace Christian Süss, who was injured on a long-term basis, and became German champions several times with the team and cup winner. His contract with Düsseldorf was extended until 2017. For the season 2017/18 he moved to TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt; he returned to Düsseldorf for the season 2018/19. In 2019 he became Indian champion in singles for the ninth time.

Achievements
Medal Sport Event Date
 Gold Table Tennis - Men's Singles 2006 Commonwealth Games - Melbourne 26 March
 Gold Table Tennis - Men's Team 2006 Commonwealth Games - Melbourne 27 March
 Gold Table Tennis - Men's Doubles 2010 Commonwealth Games - Delhi 13 October
 Bronze Table Tennis - Men's Team 2010 Commonwealth Games - Delhi 9 October
 Gold[20] Table Tennis - Men's Team 2018 Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 9 April
 Silver[21] Table Tennis - Men's Doubles 2018 Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 14 April
 Bronze[22] Table Tennis - Men's Singles 2018 Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 15 April
 Bronze[23] Table Tennis - Mixed Doubles 2018 Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 15 April

See also

References
  1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Sharath Kamal Achanta". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  2. "World ranking Record for ACHANTA Sharath Kamal (IND)". ITTF. Archived from the original on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
  3. 2021 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking
  4. Sportstar, Team. "Kamal, Chhetri, Punia and Gambhir to receive Padma Shri Award". Sportstar. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  5. "Current WR - Men". results.ittf.link. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  6. "Fresh Faces". India Today. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  7. "Rediff News". Rediff India. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  8. "Rediff Sports". Rediff India. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  9. "CWG 2018: Iconic Achantha Sharath Kamal bows out with TT bronze". Times of India. 15 April 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  10. "CWG 2018: Sathiyan G, Sharath Kamal settle for Silver in men's doubles table tennis". India Today. 14 April 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  11. "Commonwealth Games 2018: Sharath Kamal leads India to gold medal in men's table tennis team event". Firstpost. 10 April 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  12. "Achanta Sharath Kamal qualifies for Rio 2016". Inshorts. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  13. "TT Players Mouma, Manika, Soumyajit and Kamal Lose in 1st Round". The Quint. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  14. "PSBB Alumni". PSBB Schools. Retrieved 28 August 2009.
  15. "Achanta Sharath Kamal Fan Webpage". Achanta Sharath Kamal. Archived from the original on 28 May 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  16. "Sharath Kamal storms into final". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 26 March 2006. Archived from the original on 20 April 2006. Retrieved 26 March 2006.
  17. "Sharath Kamal wins Oman Open, first title in 10 years". Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  18. "Top 6 Storylines Following Round of 32 At WTT Star Contender". edgesandnets.com. 10 March 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  19. "WTT Contender Doha: Sharath Kamal loses to Yuvan Licen in semis". Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  20. "Results Men's Team Finals". The Official CWG 2018 Site.
  21. "Results Men's Doubles Finals".
  22. "Results Men's Singles Finals".
  23. "Results Mixed Doubles Finals".
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