Indian Table Tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran took the world Table Tennis fraternity by storm when he defeated European Champion Jorgic Darko at WTT Contender Zagreb 2022. The emphatic victory has given the 25-year-old the impetus to perform well at the Commonwealth Games 2022 as he eyes a medal at the singles event of the tournament.
Gnanasekaran is quite confident in his training regime ahead of the grand event and is raring to go ahead of the mega event.
“Training has been excellent in Portugal. We got to train in similar conditions like Birmingham, same butterfly tables, similar weather conditions, same time zone. It helps, you know. We had serious and satisfying sessions ahead of the CWG under the guidance of our coach Raman Subramanian. We also got to play a lot of doubles,” said the 25-year-old in an exclusive chat with Times of India before leaving for Birmingham.
Gnansekaran is wary of the challenges that lay ahead for him and the team as he has got his preparations ready.
“There are some good teams. We have England, Nigeria, Canada and Singapore, so from the quarterfinals onwards, things will start getting hotter. Of course in the medal rounds (semi-final and final), the competition will be even more intense,” he added.
“Yes, we have analysed all the potential opponents, including Liam Pitchford (England), Quadri Aruna (Nigeria) with my coach. We have chalked out a strategy and we have seen their matches. Certainly, the win against Darko has given me a lot of confidence. I have been moving really well, hitting the ball very well and playing quite aggressively. Certainly, I hope to win a singles medal this time around.”
India will look to better their performance at the CWG 2018 where they won a medal at every event and finished with 8-medal haul. Gnanasekaran feels that if India are able to equal the performance of the 8-medal victory this year, he would believe that they have bettered their performance from Gold Coast last time around.
“Our realistic aim is to win five to six medals this time around as the contest would be very tough for sure. Even that conservative estimate will be very good,” Gnanasekaran further said.
