Indian Table Tennis Thread ...

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Indian Table Tennis Thread ...

Post by BSharma »

I decided to make a thread for the only sport I ever played at the national level.

The following players will represent India at the World Table Tennis Championship in Qatar from March 1 to 7, 2004.

Teams:

Men: Chetan Baboor, Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy, Subhajit Saha and Ranabir Das.

Women: Poulomi Ghatak, Mouma Das, Mantu Ghosh, Nandita Saha and Anindita Chakraborty.

The Asian qualifying round for the 2004 Olympics will be held in Beijing, China from 9 to 13 April, 2004.
Last edited by jaydeep on Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by PKBasu »

Wow, the good doctor is a national-level table-tennis player too. We have a wealth of talent in this forum...but I don't know of too many other national-level players in any sport among the regular participants. Tell us more Bhushan...!
Actually to have been a national-level player in the 1970s was quite something. We were among the world elite of table tennis in those days (ranked among the top 12-16 countries and occasionally higher, very unlike our current ranking in the late 20s, etc.). I remember the 1975 world championships in Calcutta's Netaji Indoor stadium (specially built for the event) when Hungary's Istvan Jonyer beat Yugoslavia's handsome Stepancic to win the world championship. That was the year the Chinese reappeared with their funky rackets that were said to give them an unfair advantage...
If I remember right, Stepancic and Surbek took Yugoslavia to the world team title over China in 1975; Japan was still a contender in those days, but declined quickly thereafter as China emerged dominant. Of course in the past two decades, the dominance of the Chinese has made it difficult to remember the names of the world champions (and I must admit I have no idea who the current world champ is -- partly a consequence of the fact that we are no longer in contention, as we used to be, at least peripherally, in the 1970s).
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Post by BSharma »

PKB, I hope you realize that playing table-tennis in Uttar Pradesh in 1960s and early 1970s did not mean that a player was good. I happened to be around some decent players when I was a junior. A school mate (Rajeev of La Martiniere, of course) was the UP junior and senior champion. During my medical college days the unofficial coach of the UP team was my professor and hence I got to play a lot with the UP team. The Chinese, Korean and Japanese TT teams would tour India in the early 1970s and they always played in my city. I purchased one of the funky TT bats from the Chinese team. My most memorable moment was a former world junior # 2 letting me have 10 points; he could have easily won 21-0! I gave up TT when another medical college professor told me that I had entered the medical college to study and not to play TT.

I have digressed from the original intent of this thread but there was a reason I was angry when the Tata Open fiasco occurred in January. Over 30 years back I was representing my college in TT and we were playing Punjab in the quarter-finals. The Punjab team did not show up on time and we were given the option of a walk over or wait for our opponents. We decided to not take the walk-over since the team from Punjab was stuck in Delhi traffic. We played them and lost 4-5 with each of us beating their # 1 player but their # 3 player beat all three of us. Punjab went on to win the team championship but to this day I am happy that we made the correct decision to wait for the Punjab team. Playing tennis in Tata Open is a lot bigger and involves a lot more money than a college table-tennis tournament but I sleep in peace.
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Post by kathiresan_v »

Welcome..., ex national level TT player :D. Oooohh Bhushanji, I admire u really for that waiting game!!!

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Post by david »

Three cheers to Bhusanji. Nice to have you here in the forum.
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Post by Kumar »

Bhushan, that was a poor show of Gamesmanship!!!! :wink: I don't know if i could have done what you did, if I had been in your shoes (unless i was sure that i could beat the hell out of them). Waiting for the opponent requires lot of character andshows your sportsmanship!!!

David/ Bhushan, whatz Chetan Baboor up to this days?
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Post by BSharma »

Enough about myself, and now for the serious stuff!

Chetan Baboor has spent time in USA recently whereas he used to play in Europe a few years back. His recent performance is as follows:


Tournament; Date; Record

Killerspin Open 2003 12/29/2003 2 - 1
North American Teams 11/30/2003 8 - 2
Viducich Stiga Pacific Rim Open 10/26/2003 4 - 1
Western Open 2003 8/31/2003 5 - 1
Pacific Coast Open 8/24/2003 4 - 0
California State Open 6/29/2003 6 - 0
Grand Canyon State 2003 Summer Games 6/22/2003 4 - 0
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Post by suresh »

Bhushanji,

I am really impressed -- playing TT at the national level! I never got past representing my school. I switched to a pen-holder grip during my graduate student
days playing with my Chinese/Taiwanese friends. It improved my forehand game
considerably but I still wouldn't make my state team. Now my teaching and research
keeps me away from any kind of sport. Also this rubber and glue business is way
beyond me. Sometimes I feel it takes something away from the game. I am glad that
they increased the size of the ball to counter this.

I wish sportsmanship of the kind you practised were around today. As you must be
aware, it is more a win at all costs (includes comprising ethical values).
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Post by david »

I am happy so many sportsmen around here.

Bushanji, is there any chance of Baboor qualifying for Olympics. I don't know if he started serious practice after a year's break.
All these results are from US where he had no competition. Any thoughts...
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Post by david »

A 10-member Indian team including five women will take part in the 47th Liebherr World TT Championship to be held in Doha from March 1 to 7.
A European coach Hubert Hustache has been invited to train the players prior to the meet.

Men: A Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy, Ranbir Das, Subhajit Saha, Chetan Baboor
Women: Pulami Ghatak, Mouma Das, Montu Gosh, Anandita Chakraborty and Nandita Saha.
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Post by BSharma »

David,

Here is the link that lists the players who have qualified for the 2004 Olympics in table-tennis.

Table Tennis in the 2004 Summer Olympics Athens, Greece

Qualification for the 2004 Olympic Games
172 athletes will compete in the table tennis event of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games (86 each of men and women). A maximum of 3 men and 3 women are allowed from each country in singles. In doubles, the maximums are 2 men’s pairs and 2 women’s pairs.

Players qualify as follows:
1) 20 players via ITTF World Ranking, with a maximum of two (2) players per NOC
2) 40 players via the Continental qualification system
3) 1 player from the Host nation
4) 2 players via the World Qualification Event
5) 1 player via the Tripartite Commission Invitation

The standard of table-tennis is not so bad in USA, perhaps slightly better than India. Many US players are of Chinese or Asian origin, and some have migrated from Asian countries after doing reasonably well in their countries. I hope Baboor qualifies for the Athens Games at the qualifying tournament to be held in Beijing, China from 9 to 13 April, 2004.
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Post by david »

Thanks Bhushanji for the detailed info.

Hope Baboor makes it.
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Post by PKBasu »

Bhushan, where are we ranked now as a team in world TT? I remember we were around 12th in 1973, 13th or 14th in 1975, and slipped out of the first division (top 16) around 1979 or thereabouts and never made it back to the top league...
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Post by david »

Results: Men: India bt Slovenia 3-2

(Soumyadeep Roy lost to B Tokic 8-11, 4-11, 11-8, 11-9, 8-11; Chetan Baboor
bt M Horvat 10-12, 11-1, 7-11, 11-2, 11-9; Achanta Sharath Kamal bt S
Ignjatovic 4-11, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8; Baboor lost to Tokic 10-12, 4-11,
5-11; Roy bt Horvat 10-12, 11-3, 11-7, 13-11)


Women: India bt Slovenia 3-1
(Poulami Ghatak bt B Todorovic 11-7, 11-2, 11-6; Mouma Das bt M Safran 11-2,
11-5, 12-10; Montu Ghosh lost to S Burgar 5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 5-11, 8-11;
Ghatak bt Safran 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-8)
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Post by BSharma »

World Table tennis Championship in Doha

The Indian men's team is in Division II, Group E with Slovenia, Slovakis, Egypt, Portugal and Vietnam.

The Indian women's team is in Division II, Group E with Slovenia, Bulgaria, Austria, Denmark and Nigeria.

There is a Championship Division with 12 teams. It is composed of the top 8 teams from the previous World Championship plus the 4 highest ranked team as of January 2004.

There are first, second, third and fourth Divisions, and each of the first three divisions will have 12 teams based on the computer team ranking. The remaining teams will be put in the fourth division and these teams will play for 49th position and worse.

Medals will be awarded in each division. The top 6 teams from the Championship Division and the winner of First Division will automatically qualify for the Championship Division for the next World Championship.

PKB, you are correct that the Indian teams used to rank in the 12th to 16th spots in the 1970s but our ranking has gone down recently based on the placement of the team at this world championship. In the next day or so I am planning to write in this forum about the rise and fall of Indian table-tennis.
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