Shine on, Sharath: Kamlesh Mehta

Kamlesh Mehta and Achanta Sharath Kamal

India's table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal was always the under-dog, going into the third-round clash against Chinese table tennis legend Ma Long on Tuesday, but the manner in which the Indian conducted himself, has impressed eight-time national champion, Kamlesh Mehta.

Sharath went down 7-11, 11-8, 11-13, 4-11, 4-11 to second-seed Ma, but not before troubling the three-time Olympic gold medallist and world champion.

"The improvement in Sharath's fitness was very visible. Tall players are generally thrown off balance but his balance was spot-on against Ma, the best man to have ever played the game. In fact, Ma even took a quick break early on. Normally, it's players from other nations, who seek a time-out against the Chinese players to unsettle their rhythm, but here it was the other way round, so that was promising to see," said Mehta, 61, also a former India coach.

Sharath had beaten Portugal's Tiago Apolonia a day earlier in the second round to become the first ever Indian to make Round 3 in the men's singles at the Olympics. "Tiago was Sharath's teammate in Chennai Lions at the [franchise-based] Ultimate Table Tennis, so Sharath did well to use that knowledge to beat him," added Mehta.

Being 39, Sharath's age often overshadows his achievements, and Mehta felt it's time to change this attitude. "I've always believed that age is just a statistic. A player should only be judged by his performance. Even when I had crossed 30 and was still playing, people would keep saying that I'm over the hill and stuff. The Portuguese player, Fu Yu, who beat India's [women's singles player] Sutirtha Mukherjee in the second round in Tokyo, is 42 years old," said Mehta, urging the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) to encourage international exposure for junior players. "Only if our junior players travel abroad more regularly and succeed there, can we expect Olympic success in future." Mehta signed off.

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