Sathiyan Gnanasekaran
 Sathiyan posing with medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Birth name | Sathiyan Gnanasekaran[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Indian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 8 January 1993 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country | India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Table Tennis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest world ranking | 24 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (born 8 January 1993) is an Indian table tennis player, currently ranked at 38 in the world as of August 2021. He was a member of the Indian team that took the bronze in the 2011 Junior World Championships.
In May 2019, Sathiyan attained his career best World ranking of 24 and became the first Indian paddler ever to break into the World Top-25 ITTF rankings.
He became the first Indian paddler to sign a contract with for the Japanese T-league.
He is an employee of ONGC & currently being supported by the GoSports Foundation through the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme and managed commercially by .
Achievements[]
Sathiyan announced himself in the world stage in Table Tennis when he won the ITTF Challenge Belgium Open title in the men's singles category in September 2016. This was his first ITTF pro tour title. In the final match played at De Haan in Belgium, he defeated the local player Nuytinck Cedric with a 4-0 score in the final - with 15-13, 11-6, 11-2, 17-15. With this victory, he became the first Indian table tennis player to win an ITTF event on European soil.[2]
2017 had been a special year for Sathiyan where he won gold in the ITTF Challenge - Spanish Open, in Almeria (2017) in the men's singles category and created history by becoming the first Indian Table Tennis player ever to win two ITTF pro tour titles.[3]
In April 2018, he won three medals in his debut Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia. He also played an important role by winning both his matches against Japan in the Men Team category quarterfinals and won a historic bronze medal at the Asian Games 2018 held at Jakarta for the first time ever after a gap of 60 years.[4]
In the Asian Games 2018, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won Bronze medal losing 0-3 against South Korea. [5] Sathiyan, played the first singles match against Lee Sang-su. He took the first game 11-9 but the 28-year-old lost the next three 9-11, 3-11, 3-11.[5]
In September 2019, he pulled off the biggest win of his career by defeating the Japanese prodigy Tomokazu Harimoto in straight sets at the Asian TT Championships 2019. In the same event, he also gave a stellar performance by becoming the first Indian ever after a gap of 43 years to reach the Quarterfinals in Men Singles category.
On November 29, 2019 Sathiyan made his debut World Cup appearance and defeated higher-ranked French player Simon Gauzy 11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 14-12, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8 before beating world number 24 Jonathan Groth of Denmark 11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-2, to top his group and reach the round of 16 in 2019 ITTF Men's World Cup. The world number 30 G Sathiyan, went down 1-4 (11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 9-11, 8-11) to Timo Boll in the pre-quarters.
In 2021, Sathiyan competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[6]
Awards[]
- Arjuna Award 2018
- TOISA Table Tennis player of the year award 2017 (Jury choice)
References[]
- ^ "Player profile".
- ^ "Sathiyan Gnanasekaran wins Belgium Open". ESPN. 28 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
- ^ "Sathiyan Gnanasekaran adds to title haul, wins in Almeria - International Table Tennis Federation". International Table Tennis Federation. 26 November 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
- ^ "Sathiyan Gnanasekaran national hero - International Table Tennis Federation". International Table Tennis Federation. 28 August 2018.
- ^ a b "Sathiyan rates Asian Games bronze India's biggest achievement in table tennis". India Today. 28 August 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ "Table Tennis GNANASEKARAN Sathiyan - Tokyo 2020 Olympics". Retrieved 20 September 2021.
- Indian male table tennis players
- Living people
- Racket sportspeople from Chennai
- Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
- Olympic table tennis players of India
- Table tennis players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
- Commonwealth Games medallists in table tennis
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for India
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for India
- Tamil sportspeople
- 1993 births
- Table tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games
- Asian Games medalists in table tennis
- Asian Games bronze medalists for India
- Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games
- Recipients of the Arjuna Award