CHENNAI: There was nothing strange about the identity of the winner in the men’s singles section of the 11Even Sports National-ranking (South Zone) table tennis championships at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
It was A Sharath Kamal, a man who has won a plethora of titles at home and a few abroad. However, it didn’t add up. The Tamil Nadu stalwart doesn’t normally take part in these sort of tournaments. Not because he considers them beneath him, but he spends the bulk of his year playing club TT in Germany. Believe it or not, the last ranking-tournament he played in India was in 2009.
So when the question of ‘why now’ was put to him, he gave an interesting response. “I slowly want to come back home in the sense that till now I have been living eight months in Germany and the rest in India,” he says to Express. “Now on, I may split it 50-50 between the two countries because of family. That’s one of the main reasons why I had time to play this event.” But he says this isn’t a sign that he is ready to shift base from Europe to India. “Not really (whether he eyes a permanent India return). I played this tournament because I was here.”
Given the 34-year-old has struggled previously to adapt to Indian boards and conditions, how did this tournament go? “I actually gave myself time to prepare for this tournament,” he says. “I was training for close to two weeks, trying to adjust to the bounce and the feel of the ball. Earlier I didn’t have much preparation. That’s also why I didn’t play in the ranking tournament which took place in Rajkot.”
He obviously doesn’t want to dwell too much on the Olympics — “I didn’t play too well even though I had lots of good preparation” is his brief summary — and is already looking ahead to this December.
“I am going to Germany for a Champions League match on Thursday.
In that sense, this event has provided me with some good match practice, given that I had not played in 3-4 weeks. The next time I will play in India will be at the PSPB event in December before the national championships early next year.”
Results (finals): Men: A Sharath Kamal bt G Sathiyan 11-8, 11-9, 11-3, 8-11, 11-5. Women: Sutirtha Mukherjee bt Krittwika Sinha Roy 11-8, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5.
swaroop@newindianexpress.com