Indian Table Tennis Thread ...

[Ankit Desai]

TTFI to sign MoU with Anil Kumble's Tenvic

We will be signing a MoU with Anil Kumble's Tenvic for providing foreign coaching to our wards,"

said the secretary general of the TTFI, Dhanraj Choudhary.

-Ankit

[Ankit Desai]

2012 Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament is goin on at Hong Kong.

Official Web Site - http://www.hktta.org.hk/2012AQT/

Indian Men and Women all players moved to stage 2. Men has dominated stage 1 while women had relatively ok outing.

Stage 2 will start from friday ! Men & Women

-Ankit

[sameerph]

It looks a highly complicated format for qualification. ( Someone can explain if he can figure out. ) But, overall it looks like there will be 12 qualifiers each from Men & Women. The way they played in first stage looks like all 3 of our men & at least 1 of women have a good chance of qualifying unless I got it totally wrong.

[jaydeep]

It looks a highly complicated format for qualification. ( Someone can explain if he can figure out. ) But, overall it looks like there will be 12 qualifiers each from Men & Women. The way they played in first stage looks like all 3 of our men & at least 1 of women have a good chance of qualifying unless I got it totally wrong.

Sameer, from this ongoing Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament only 8 players each from Men & Women will be qualify for Olympics.

Wikipedia link

Check this site where they give clear picture of competition format of Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament (frankly it is still look complicated ).

Table Tennis Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012

[sameerph]

Thanks, Jaydeep . That second link is useful ( although the format still a lot confusing.) But with 8 players qualifying our players should be able to book at least 2-3 places for London.

[indiansportsfan]

Further clarification on the qualification from ITTF site:
ITTF - 2012 Olympic Games

"Eight places in total are available in Hong Kong but one place is reserved for the highest placed player from South Asia.
Should a player from South Asia finish in the top seven places; then the next highest on the final listing from South Asia will also qualify, even if outside the top eight names."

Since India is the only South Asian country participating in this event, 1 male and 1 female singles spot is already assured for India.

[Mugundan]

indiansportsfan is right. Either Sharath or Ghosh will go through.
Here is the TTFI release today:
New Delhi, April 21: Achanta Sharath Kamal failed to seal the fifth qualifying spot at the ongoing Asian Olympic Qualification Table Tennis Tournament at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong, when he lost to Kim Song Nam of North Korea 2-4 (12-10, 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 8-11, 8-1) in a late night match on Saturday, according to reports reaching here.
Of the seven berths available at the qualifiers, six have already been grabbed with the lone seventh spot now on offer. To win that Sharath will have to bring in all his experience—first to beat the Chinese Taipei player Wu Chi-Chi and then expect to defeat the winner of the match between Jang Song Man of North Korea and Indian Soumyajit Ghosh.
By losing the match to the North Korean, whom he had beaten earlier in group stages, the Indian made his job at the qualifiers much tougher as he will have to play two more matches and win them to fancy any chance of joining the Indian contingent to London. If he does that, he will be the first Indian to make the Olympics grade for the third successive time. The Indian had represented at both the Athens and Beijing Games.
Sharath, who was playing the fourth match of the day, had a mixed luck on Saturday. Before taking on Kim Song Nam, he played a tough match against world No. 1 Ma Long and lost to the top Chinese in straight games of 9-11, 2-11, 4-11, 6-11. Earlier, he had played a gruelling 95-minute match to beat a top-rung North Korean Jang Song Man 4-3 (11-8, 13-11, 9-11, 7-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7).
Sharath started by winning the first game against Nam, supposedly the weakest among North Korean contenders here, but lost the next two games before regrouping himself. But then Nam was up to the task as he took the next two games to seal his Olympics place.
A dejected Sharath rued on the missed opportunities in earlier rounds. “Going into the match I was confident, but Nam played really well. It was sort of a revenge match for him,” said Sarath. On his chances on Sunday, Sharath didn’t want to commit himself. He, however, said he will approach the two matches on Sunday with an open mind.
But according to TTFI secretary-general, Dhanraj Choudhary, all is not lost for India. “We have the option of using the South Asian regional quota tie between Sharath and Ghosh and whoever wins will go to London,” he said.
In other words, Sharath can still hope for a hat-trick of Games appearance by either clinching the last qualifying chance or take the South Asian regional quota route to reach London.
.

[Ankit Desai]

Ankita 1st Indian paddler to confirm London ticket

As for Ankita, she became the only woman to seal the London berth. Ankita's hard fought 4-3 win over her Indian counterpart K Shamini in the South Asian qualifiers in Hong Kong has ensured the paddler's name has been written in history.

So one more has booked ticket to London 2012.

I guess with one spot allotted to South Asian country Sarath Kamal looks like in too. If he would have qualified as 6th or above than another Indian would have got chance to go London 2012 but if Sarath will win and qualify for 7th spot than he will be lone qualifier from India so far as 6 spots already taken.

-Ankit

[Mugundan]

Soumyajit Ghosh beat Anthony Amal Raj to qualify for the Olympics. Of course Ankita also made it. Sharath lost to Amal Raj and thus went out of reckoning for the South Asia slot. It looked like an exclusive Indian competition to get Olympic quota places. Actually even before the competition began, India was assured of one place each in the men's and women's sections. Sharath will now have to come through from the last qualification tournament in Doha (May 10.13) where two slots would be available.

[jaydeep]

Congratulation to 18 yrs old Ankita Das and Soumyajit Ghosh to qualify for the London Olympics ... Mostly Sharath will join them through Doha qualifying tournament.

[sameerph]

Achanta Sharat Kamal was just 1 win away from qualifying but lost an all important to players from People's republic of Korea & then went on to lose to Anthony Amalraj. Hopefully he can still earn his place for London but good that at least Soumyajeet & Ankita have surely qualified.

[rajorshi]

Wow! Congrats to Ankita and Soumajit! Bengal is the talent hub for table tennis .
Have Poulomi and Mouma retired?

[prashanthm]

2012 Final World Olympic Qualification Tournament,10 May 2012 - 13 May 2012, Doha, QAT

Minimum 2 qualification slots, possible more based on not reaching continental limit

Stage 1 games to start today, Top 2 from each group will proceed to stage 2 and then they will be drawn to play in a knock-out system...

For Men, A minimum of 2 wins in stage 1 and 4 wins in stage 2 reqd to qualify...

Men: Achanta Sharath Kamal (GRP 7), Anthony Amalraj (GRP 2) (Total of 16 groups)
Women: Paulomi Ghatak (GRP 5), Shamini Kumaresan (GRP 8) (Total of 12 groups)

Sharath is seeded 7th overall and is the top seed in his group, while Amalraj is seeded 33rd and is 3rd in his group in which overall 2nd seed Lebesson has also been drawn.

All the best to the Indian players!

[jaydeep]

U can follow latest scores and updates on this site.

Table Tennis ITTF World Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Doha

[prashanthm]

wow! Anthony Amalraj has just won his first game against WR 49 Lebesson...

ANTHONY Amalraj (IND, 165) d. LEBESSON Emmanuel (FRA, 49) 11-4, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5

Way to go! Good chance of finishing first and a chance to be seeded 2nd for the Stage II knock-out draw.....