Sharath Kamal

Sharath Kamal
Full name Achanta Sharath Kamal[1]
Nationality  India
Playing style Right-handed, shakehand grip
Highest ranking 39
Height 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 82 kg (180 lb; 12.9 st)

Achanta Sharath Kamal (born 12 July 1982) is a professional table tennis player from Tamil Nadu India. His mother tongue is Telugu. He won the men's singles gold in the 16th Commonwealth table tennis championship held at Kuala Lumpur in 2004. He is a recipient of the Arjuna award for the year 2004.[2] He lives in Chennai and is employed with the Indian Oil Corporation as an officer.[3] He visits Spain frequently and used to play for a club there called San Sebastian de los Reyes till 2009.[2]

He won the US Open Table Tennis Men's championships held at Grand Rapids, Michigan in July 2010. He won the title defeating the defending champion Thomas Keinath of Slovakia in an epic battle with a final score of 4-3. He also won the won 2010 Egypt open table tennis championship beating Li Ching of Hong Kong in straight sets 11-7, 11-9, 11-8, 11-4, thus becoming first Indian to win singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour.[4] He also captained the Indian men's team that won the team title at the same championship by defeating favourites and nine-time champions England.

He also won the gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, beating crowd favourite Australian William Henzell in the final, apart from helping the Indian team clinch gold in the table tennis team event against Singapore. He teamed up with Subhajit Saha to win the Men's Doubles gold[5] at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

He represented India in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and has been the India No. 1 for four years now. He also has represented the country in the 2006 Asian Games at Qatar.

In the year 2007 he was the First Indian to win the Pyongyong Invitational Tournament held at Pyongyong, North Korea. This was the 21st edition of the tournament which was held in August 2007.His best performance on the world circuit came up in the Japan Pro Tour helds in June 2007 where he beat World No.19, Lee Jung Woo (South Korea). After this victory he reached his career best ranking of World No. 73 and in January 2011 his ranking is 40. Incidentally, Sharath was the only Indian Men's Table Tennis player to be selected for the Beijing Olympics.

In the season 2010/2011 he also plays in the German major league (Bundesliga) for TSV Graefelfing and has been one of the best players in the league with wins over top players like Christian Süß of Germany.

He is an alumnus of PSBB Nungambakkam school[6] (class of 2000) and Loyola College, Chennai.[2][7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Olympic results". http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sa/vladimir-samsonov-1.html. Retrieved 2010-08-18. 
  2. ^ a b c "Fresh Faces". India Today. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/content_mail.php?option=com_content&name=print&id=55396. Retrieved 2009-08-06. 
  3. ^ "Sharath Kamal storms into final". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 2006-03-26. http://www.hindu.com/2006/03/26/stories/2006032604532300.htm. Retrieved 2006-03-26. 
  4. ^ "Rediff News". Rediff India. http://sports.rediff.com/report/2010/jul/11/sharath-kamal-wins-egypt-open-tt.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-12. 
  5. ^ "Rediff Sports". Rediff India. http://sports.rediff.com/report/2010/oct/13/cwg-2010-delhi-table-tennis-tt-sharath-kamal-subhajit-saha.htm. Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  6. ^ "PSBB Alumni". PSBB Schools. http://www.psbbschools.ac.in/alumni-1.html. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
  7. ^ "Achanta Sharath Kamal Fan Webpage". Achanta Sharath Kamal. http://www.achantasharathkamal.com/sharath.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20.