Ultimate Table Tennis found its mojo this year, reckons Sharath Kamal
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Sharath Kamal feels that UTT’s changed format has helped make it more attractive to both players and the audience after he credited his teammates for leading his team to the title. He went on to talk about the journey through the competition and India’s chances of Olympic qualification.
After having led his franchise Chennai Lions to the championship in their debut year, Sharath Kamal has been in the headlines for being the orchestrator behind the triumph. However, he has attributed his teammates Petrissa Solja from Germany and Tiago from Apolonia from Portugal for contributing significantly in their winning run.
“This season we had a fantastic team. The main factor [for the win] was Petrissa. She has already qualified for Olympics in the European Games in both the team and mixed doubles. This is Tiago’s third season and he knows how it works,” Sharath was quoted saying by Sportstar.
After having lost in their first-ever game in the tournament to U Mumba TT, the team bounced back in style to reach the knockouts. They defeated Goa Challengers in the penultimate round to set up a title clash with Dabang Delhi.
“For us, the best team was Goa that had Cheng-I-Ching, women’s world No.9, India’s A. Amalraj and Archana Kamath. Both were in fine form, along with the foreign player Alvaro Robles . We were trailing 1-5 but fought back to level at 6-6. And Madhurika Patkar won a tough final match against Archana. We came back from the jaws of defeat and that helped us to be strong in the final," said the 37-year-old.
The match against the defending champions though looked evenly matched on paper at the end turned out to be a cakewalk, as the Lions recorded an easy victory.
“Tiago was in great shape. His win over Sathiyan gave us the momentum. Dabang is a one-man army . Once we took Sathiyan out, we were very confident,” said Sharath.
This was the third season of the table tennis tournament and it adopted a more compact format for its ties this time round which helped attract larger viewership owing to shorter matches.
“I am really happy with the format. It is very short, compact and very intense. There were lots of emotions and expressions which were captured well on television. That we could finish each tie in around two hours was encouraging. I think this year, UTT found its mojo. It was a packed stadium in the final. From here, it will only go upwards. The viewership has gone up, the production values were top-class. So many moments were captured well on television, which increased people’s interest in the sport,” Sharath explained.
The player will now be returning to international duty and the team’s eyes will now be on the World Team Qualification Championship in Gondomor, Portgual from January 22 to 26 in 2020, which will also act as a qualifier for the Olympics.
“If we qualify as a team, then the top two places are guaranteed in singles. That makes a lot of things easier for all of us. We’ll have enough time to prepare for Tokyo,” he concluded.
