While I could not wait to watch Sharath Kamal wield his weapon in his swansong, my trip turned out to be more than just about the matches. It was a journey laced with serendipitous encounters with stalwarts of the game. As I made my way from Chennai to Kanpur, I had a short layover in Delhi. Usually, I loathe layovers (I am all for direct flights), but fate had other plans. I met the Paralympian Sonalben Patel at the airport, who was returning after winning the Khelo India Para Games in Delhi. If this was not already inspiring enough, when I reached Chennai, I had an absolute fan-girl moment meeting Olympian Neha Aggarwal Sharma, and was instantly overcome with nostalgia. Back in primary school, I was anything but sporty. I would come last on sports days and shy away from the games classes. But it all changed one fine August evening in 2008. The first-ever sports match I watched was Neha Aggarwal’s table tennis at the Beijing Olympics. That was the spark, the trigger point for me. From then on, there has been no looking back, as I have been a national-level footballer, a district-level table tennis player, a college-level tennis and squash player, and recently completed my first half-marathon. I owe my fitness, and especially my table tennis interest, to her. This is the magic of the Olympics. While they say never meet your idol, my short and sweet moment with Neha Aggarwal proved otherwise. It was a crash course in humility. She truly embodied Rudyard Kipling’s words: “…If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same; if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue or walk with kings nor lose the common touch; yours is the earth and everything in it…”

Coming back to the matches, the Indian contingent had a decent outing. While the focus was on crowd-favourite Sharath Kamal, Snehit Suravajjula (also Kamal’s doubles partner) shone brightly by coming from behind to get the better of higher-ranked Yukiya Uda in the round of 32, before halting Kamal himself. Suravajjula finally went down in the quarterfinals, but not without putting up a solid fight, and looks like a promising future prospect. For me, the real charm lies not just in the matches (which, truth be told, often look more cinematic on TV with the slow-motion replays and expert commentary), but in watching the pros practise before their matches. The intense sessions are an exercise of relentless repetition, a pursuit of nailing the basics perfectly, to the extent that they hardly miss a ball. They then tactfully execute the skills learnt in the matches, do not fear taking risks, and trust their hard work. These, my friend, are valuable life lessons under the garb of sports entertainment.

The fan engagement was stepped up in this edition, with the implementation of meet-and-greet sessions. The organisers were even distributing wooden blades for getting autographs, although, sadly, I could not get one for myself :(. Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal attended to every fan present with warmth and made their day by obliging with autographs, photographs and answers to their starstruck, wide-eyed questions. There was a mini table for friends to have fun, and free delectable delicacies were available in the VIP section, but ironically, the service lacked the speed associated with table tennis! As I walked away from the venue with memories for a lifetime, I had moist eyes and a sliver of remorse for not making it to the professional circuit. In these reflections of mine, I find my way of connecting to the gritty world of sports, along with pushing myself as a college athlete.

The post Throwback to the WTT Star Contender Chennai: A Legend Hangs His Boots appeared first on Radhika Prasad.

WTT (World Table Tennis) is the new events and commercial entity of the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) with the aim to popularise the sport by conducting events across the globe. Created in 2019, the first event was held in Macao in 2020. The event structure involves Grand Smashes, Cup Finals, Champions Series, Star Contender, Contender and Youth Contender. The Goa event, held from February 27 to March 5, 2023, was of the Star Contender category, hosted and brought to India by the tireless efforts of Stupa Sports Analytics. Thank you, Stupa. If you have not already, please do check out their app; it offers great match insights and analytics, for your own practice sessions as well. The event boasted a star-studded lineup featuring Fan Zhendong, Tomokazu Harimoto, Truls Moregard, Patrick Franziska on the men’s side and Wang Yidi, Hina Hayata, Ying Han, Adriana Diaz on the women’s end. Sadly, Ma Long, Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng withdrew, which would have added more star power to the starry event. The Indian challenge was spearheaded by legends Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra. Although the Indians had a lacklustre, forgettable performance, Manika Batra showed some spark to defeat Adriana Diaz, before succumbing in the subsequent round. As expected, the Chinese players took home the silverware in the singles event (Liang Jingkun and Wang Yidi), while the Koreans and Japanese walked back happily with the doubles victory. 

I purchased the VIP level tickets for quarterfinals and semifinals from bookmyshow. Why not the finals, you may ask? Well, I am a Physics PhD student at IIT Kanpur, which sadly has a silly attendance policy and provides limited number of holidays. Being on the college team myself, I utilise those holidays for participating in tournaments. Also, travelling from Kanpur to Goa seems to take aeons! So, I had to keep a day in backup for travel :(! While at the event, I met Ms Madhu Pandey, one of the senior volunteers. She is a fantastic trailblazing umpire from India in her own right (check out her interview here). She was kind enough to provide me access to the stadium a day earlier, to watch the poster girl of Indian table tennis, Manika Batra live in action. And also to some lip-smacking food. Hope to meet you again soon, ma’am. 

Sports teaches us important life lessons, apart from staying fit and healthy. Take for example, the first match played by world rank 1, Fan Zhendong (after receiving a Bye in the first round) against the then-rank 193 (and still outside the top 100), the left-handed Cho Daeseong. Fan was leading 2-0, with a match point at 10-9 in the third game. Cho staged a herculean comeback to take the match 3-2. Do watch the match highlights here. Never give up; keep fighting till the end. Fan swallowed the disappointment to emerge victorious in the next tournament, the prestigious Singapore Smash, where the Chinese clean swept all the singles and doubles, men’s and women’s events. Bounce back stronger from failure. During the practice sessions, I noticed some interesting characteristics. The players would definitely train under the watchful eyes of their coaches and practice with fellow teammates, but they would also hit a few balls with players from other countries. Felix Lebrun did an entire warmup session with the rising Indian paddler Manav Thakkar, just before his match was scheduled. It is a competitive world, but it is imperative for humanity to have camaraderie and friendship, to grow together. 

The WTT Star Contender, Goa, was a massive first foray made by India. There is some scope of improvement in the fan engagement section, and I hope Stupa is taking notes and actively working towards making the subsequent WTT events an even bigger success in India. The on-court interview was conducted somewhat awkwardly. The players were facing away from the VIP box. The same was the case with the player entry as well. For someone who is paying a premium to get the best possible view of their favourite players, this is not great news. Further, there could be some small collectible souvenirs, like autographed balls. It would be nice to have a mascot, and get one’s hands on a stuffed toy of the same. 

Goodbye Goa. Now, back to work: research in experimental Quantum Optics. 

PS: While the match replays and highlights are available on the WTT YouTube channel, I have some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of the practice sessions for you. If anyone knows about some sports photography or content writing internship/volunteering opportunities, do inform me. 

The post Throwback to the WTT Star Contender Goa: A Fan’s Perspective  appeared first on Radhika Prasad.