India’s top table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran sets his sights on breaking into the top 20 of world rankings. The Chennai born plans to train with leading players in Asia to help achieve the target.
The world ranked 44 said he will be training in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea in the coming months to sharpen his skills. Sathiyan break into the top 50 of the world following his impressive run in 2017, where he won silver in ITTF Major- Bulgaria 2017 in men’s doubles. He won 2 bronze at ITTF Major – Swedish 2017 and ITTF Challenge – Belgium 2017.
“I will be training in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea to improve my game and sharpen my skills. The idea to train in these countries came from my personal coach S Raman,” Sathiyan told PTI in an interaction as reported by Times of India.
Sathiyan said most of the world’s top players come from Asia and former TT player and coach Subramaniam Raman suggested him to train with the Asian players.
“Most of the world’s best paddlers are from Asia, especially the Chinese. Training with them will be helpful in the long run. Playing with them will help improve my skills,” said Sathiyan.
“The plan is to train with the players at their national academies, beginning with Hong Kong. However, the dates are yet to be confirmed,” he added.
Sathiyan who is also an engineer said that he is focusing on being aggressive during his training with coach Raman.
Sathiyan was recently signed by Bundesliga’s ASV Grunwettersbach Tischtennis club and he said that it will prove beneficial for him.
“Apart from the stint with the national academies in Asia, playing in the Bundesliga would provide good exposure as some of the best will be taking part,” said the India No.1, who is leading the Dabang Smashers in the ongoing UTT.
Sathiyan also talked about his chances in the upcoming Asian Games and said that it would be tough to return from Pan Asia event with a medal.
“It (our prospects) is going to be very hard at the Asian Games, with the Chinese and other Asian powerhouses around. We are playing with a lot of confidence and if we get a favourable draw anything is possible,” said Sathiyan, who won a Team gold, a silver in men’s doubles and bronze in mixed doubles at Gold Coast.
