CHENNAI: Age is just a number for A Sharath Kamal. The 40-year-old Olympian and Manika Batra will spearhead the 11-member Indian team, comprising five men and six women, at the World Championships, to be held at Durban, South Africa from May 20 to 28.
Sharath has been preparing keenly for the event and is eager to make it to the quarterfinals in both singles, and doubles and then take it as it comes. At this stage of his career, he wants to enjoy every outing and not worry too much about the results. At the same time, he insists that he has the hunger to compete.
Excerpts:
How is the preparation for the worlds?
Started preparing by the end of March. For the last seven weeks, I have been focussing a lot on becoming fitter and faster on the table for which I have been working with my strength and conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan along with my table tennis coaches Srinivasa Rao and Muralidhara Rao in Chennai. Had couple of sparring partners over the last few weeks to work on specific technical drills.
What are the areas you have worked on during your camp in Bengaluru?
The camp started on May 7 and we are focussing to improve our sharpness in match play, for which specific drills have been designed for practice. At the camp, we are focusing also on men’s doubles where I will be partnering with G Sathiyan and our coaches will help us build our doubles game too. The coaches at the camp are Subhajit Saha, Mamta Prabhu and Chris Pfeiffer.
How do you fancy your chances in singles?
It’s been round of 32 which I would be looking to get better and hope to make it to the quarterfinals this time around. And in the men’s doubles, myself and Sathiyan have been doing quite well and we hope we will make it to the quarterfinals there too.
How is it to be partnering with Sathiyan?
I have been partnering with Sathiyan for the last 5 to 6 years and we’ve been doing quite well in the international arena where we also won a bronze medal at the Asian Championships in 2021. So now we are looking at making it to the quarterfinals. From there on, if we have a chance to win a medal, we will try and do that.
Any specific area that you are working to counter opponents?
From the Commonwealth Games, I have been trying to add few new techniques into my game like a couple of different serves. And I am also working a lot on my defensive game, while continuing to sharpen my attacking game.
In South Africa the conditions are different, how will the team adapt, are you going early?
I will be going three days prior to the beginning of the tournament where I will try and adapt to the new conditions in South Africa and at the same time for my body to adapt to the time difference between India and South Africa. So it will be very difficult to guess the conditions beforehand. Once you get into the tournament, then you figure out if the conditions (for the game) are fast or slow or spinning.
How do you stay fit at this age?
I focus a lot on my fitness which is the strength behind my longevity in my career. I constantly keep working to be innovative and relevant, keeping working on my reflexes. And guess all this has come in handy.