Chennai paddler G Sathiyan, who achieved India's all-time highest world ranking of 28 yesterday, says it will be ideal to follow the historic Asian Games bronze with another medal at Tokyo 2020
India's G Sathiyan during the CWG mixed doubles semi-finals in Gold Coast, Australia last year. Sathiyan and Manika Batra went on to win gold in the event
It was a nervous lunch back home in Chennai yesterday for India's table tennis ace G Sathiyan as he awaited the latest ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) world rankings. They were released around 1:30 pm IST. The meal ended in a sweet treat as Sathiyan attained India's highest ever ranking in the sport - 28. "I normally don't eat sweets but my mother forced me to have a boondi ladoo to celebrate this dream-come-true achievement," Sathiyan, 25, told mid-day yesterday.
It's been a mercurial rise in rankings for Sathiyan, who was hovering around the 400s in 2014 before an impressive upward trend thereafter saw him win three medals on his Commonwealth Games debut at Gold Coast, Australia last year along with a historic bronze at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia a few months later.
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On track for Top 15
"I had targeted the Top 20 by the end of this year and it's on track. In fact, Top 15 is also a possibility. I just returned from Germany [where he featured in the highly competitive Bundesliga] yesterday and will be travelling there again in August for the second season. Then, with the national team, we have training camps in Japan and Korea. There is a huge effort that's going into our preparation ahead of next year's Tokyo Olympics and hopefully it can result in a medal," said Sathiyan, who also played an integral part in the Indian men's team's best-ever 13th-place finish at the World Team Championships in Sweden last year.
China continue to dominate the table tennis world with Zhendong Fan, Xin Xu and Gaayuan Lin occupying the top three world rankings respectively but they are wary of
India's rise, felt Sathiyan.
'India is a threat to China'
"When we had a camp in China last year, just before the Asian Games, and visited their national training centre, we saw that 'India' figured prominently on their list of 'Potential threats to an Olympic medal'. So if China believes that India can win an Olympic medal in TT, why can't we," said Sathiyan, an IT Engineer from St Joseph's College, Chennai.
Sathiyan said the Indian paddlers' confidence has risen after the Asian Games success. "Many felt that an Asian Games medal is next to impossible, but we achieved it, conquering Rio Olympics silver medalists Japan en route to the bronze. Japan had finished second to China in Rio.
"It's all about overcoming the demons in your mind - the demons that say things lke, 'this has never happened before' or 'it's not possible.' I strongly believe that Indian table tennis can finish on the podium at Tokyo 2020," Sathiyan signed off.
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