Loss at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made be stronger, admits Gnanasekaran Sathiyan
Table Tennis star Gnanasekaran Sathiyan admitted that the loss he suffered at the Tokyo Olympics has made him stronger and a better player. Since then, he won the men’s singles title at the ITTF Czech Open, in August, and also a men’s doubles title alongside Harmeet Desai at the WTT Contender Tunis.
Table Tennis has been a sport in which India has mostly struggled at the Olympics. However, with the progress shown by the players in the past few years, hopes were pretty high especially as Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, one of the biggest stars in Indian Table Tennis right now, made his debut at the mega-event, earlier this year.
Unfortunately, Sathiyan was defeated by Hong Kong’s Siu Hang Lam in his opening match itself, in Tokyo. Despite the result, the Indian feels that the loss at the Olympics made him stronger and a better player. The Chennai-based player won the men’s singles title at the 2021 ITTF Czech Open, in August and followed it up with a men’s doubles title alongside Harmeet Desai at the 2021 WTT Contender Tunis.
"It has been a great run after the Olympics. I am much more agile and playing more aggressively. After the Olympics, we had a detailed analysis of the game and those losses actually made me stronger,” said Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, as reported by Olympics.com.
“We had a lot of data and along with my coach we got into the technical part of my game and the small details where I could improve. It is now starting to give us good results. Extremely happy with my form and now I need to keep up this form for the World Championship and the next big tournaments in 2022,” he added.