His campaign in the WTT Star Contender Goa 2023 may have been over on the first day of the main draw itself, losing in the first round in the men’s singles and doubles, but A. Sharath Kamal did his bit by staying on till the penultimate day and lending his support to the biggest table tennis tournament in India.
“Not a great tournament for me personally but feels great that a big WTT event has come to India,” Sharath, also the chair of the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF’s) athlete commission, said here on Sunday. “The fact that so many table tennis players have travelled to watch all the star-studded games from various parts of India stresses that the tournament is a huge success.”
The WTT Star Contender event - promoted by Stupa Sports Analytics - is the first World Table Tennis event to have been staged in India. Besides, Petra Sorling, the first female ITTF president, has also become the first ITTF chief to visit India.
Sorling’s visit - just three months after a newly-elected executive committee has taken charge at the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) after an administrative mess for a better part of the last two years - is significant considering India’s rising stature in the global table tennis ecosystem.
Sorling admitted that staging of the Star Contender event - likely to be at least a five-year affair - will help ITTF make inroads into the Indian market.
“No doubt this event is also important for ITTF and WTT. We are looking at new stars coming up. It is important for us as an institution to have a big market like India as part of the overall agenda of table tennis,” Sorling said.
“When badminton was making big strides over here, we were thinking of what we can do over here. After the last year’s... time out, let’s call it that... with the new structure and the new board in place, it’s full speed (sic). Together, I am sure we can rule this market as well.”
Kamlesh Mehta, the legendary paddler who is now the TTFI secretary general, assured the federation will ensure a full-fledged domestic calendar will be in place from the forthcoming season.
“We took charge on December 19. In the last three months, we have had four national ranking tournaments. And we will have para-nationals and the senior nationals later this month. Besides, this tournament has been organised at such a short notice and has provided an opportunity to 40-plus Indian paddlers to compete at the highest stage,” Mehta said.
“This is just a message from the entire executive committee about what lies ahead in the years to come. During our next executive committee meeting, we shall plan the full calendar. I am sure that thanks to the positive outlook of the EC, we will host many more events in future.”
Megha Gambhir, the Stupa chief executive, said her company is open to discussing hosting the next year’s Star Contender event in other states, with Goa remaining their “first preference since the Goa government has been extremely supportive”.
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