High toss

Sharath will always say that the Egypt Open win this July was not a sudden achievement. It was the culmination of years of persistence coupled with what he calls ‘giant leaps of faith’.

In playing competitive table tennis,28-year-old Sharath got a clear head start. The son of Chennai’s famous coach Srinivasa Rao,Sharath was initiated into the game quite early in life. Srinivasa won’t let a coach’s impartiality come before paternal pride when he says Sharath is his greatest achievement. Sharath’s first memory of the game is sharing the three tables at his family-owned ‘Raos Training Centre’ in San Thome,Chennai with 40 other players.

That memory soon fades as Sharath grew tall and long limbed to a height of 6’2,and found it difficult to play from close to the table. Unable to bend close enough to the table for his liking,he would play from as far from the table as possible. This would later prove to be an advantage. Sharath could both stay close to the net to counter smashes,and stay away to be able to play them himself.

The risk taker
Uncle Muralidhara,who too is a coach at Raos,remembers Sharath as an inquisitive paddler,who tried new shots even in the middle of important matches. He recalls with amusement the final of a sub-junior tournament,where with five match points,Sharath started slicing,spinning and smashing even as his opponent stuck to simple shots. While Srinivasa watched aghast,Muralidhara could see that the young Sharath was in fact trying moves others in his age group would not be attempting. “In the end Sharath may have lost the match,but that spirit of exploration remained.”
If Sharath talks of making the giant leaps,his first came from a push. In1999 Sharath was a steady state player. Out of the blue one day he got a call from Patiala,where his father was conducting a coaching camp. Srinivasa gently chided his son by saying,“so many players from your age group are doing well,you too have the talent,so utilise it.” Sharath recalls not sleeping that night. The next day he was nowhere to be found at home,his frantic mother later found that the boy had,at 4.30 am gone to the beach,and started training. Table tennis became an obsession for Sharath now as he would often cycle 20 kms competing at various tournaments across Chennai. While others would traipse along Marina beach,Sharath thought of it only as a training ground. Kamlesh Mehta,an Olympian who coached him prior to the 2004 Olympics says,“He would always do double the practice that I told him to do.”

Stroke of luck
But even hard work needs some luck. In August 2002,a national camp was called in Ajmer where Sharath was not included. Then,an opponent pulled out because of his college examinations. Grabbing the opportunity,Sharath beat several top ranked players to seal his spot. Sharath says,“I sometimes wonder what would have happened if that player had not dropped out. Maybe,he would have been in my place today.”
By 2004,Sharath qualified for the Olympics and also won the Commonwealth TT Championship. In 2006,he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne but knew that if he had to go to the next level,he would have to play the European club circuit as it would give him a chance to play against top-ranked players and interact with specialised coaches. He made his way to Sweden and then to San Sebastian de los Reyes,a club in Spain.

All alone abroad
There was a catch though: European clubs preferred Chinese players. Sharath offered them a bargain rate for his services since he wanted a feel of a highly competitive pro-league. But since he had to honour commitments at home and play a few national tournaments,to-and-fro frequent flights played havoc with his modest monthly budget. “I always considered my Europe experience an investment. I knew I would benefit out of it over time,” Sharath says. But the experience was emotionally draining. Used to the proximity of his close knit family and constant motivation from his father,Sharath fought the devils of loneliness all alone in a foreign land.
“You go home to an empty dark room. You have no one to celebrate a victory with,no one to talk to when you lose. I missed my home terribly. On the plus side,I learned to cook,” Sharath adds.
But when Sharath played in Spain,he put all that behind him,performing well enough for San Sebastian to retain him. This time paying him as much as they paid the Chinese. More importantly,he sharpened his skills. The backhand,favoured by the Europeans but never a strength for most Asian players became a potent weapon. Sharath describes his European experience as difficult but essential. Another of those “leaps’’.
“Before every giant leap lies a hard decision. Once that is made,I stick with it no matter what.” It’s a decision that has paid off. Shubojit Saha,his close friend and doubles partner says,“If Sharath was already the best in the country,now the gap between him and the rest is too much.”

Lows before the high
By the end of 2009,Sharath ranked 63 looked to be doing well. He had beaten the World No 33 and had come within a point of beating the world champion. Then came the low. At the World Championships in Russia,He lost to a player ranked in the 300’s. As setbacks continued,he almost slipped out of the top 100. “I kept losing. I wanted to stop. The belief was gone. My mind was blank,” he recalls.
Sharath took a week’s break and went home to Chennai to sleep in his own bedroom. His father told him,“Sharath,no one expected you to break into the top 100. That you have. You have it in you to come back.” He then went to Patiala and began preparing in earnest for his comeback tournament,the Indian Open. Team coach Massimo ‘Max’ Constantini recalls how before Sharath’s first match,he was equally nervous. In the event,Sharath won comfortably,made it to the quarter-finals and got his confidence back. Wins at the US Open and then historically at the Egypt Open,came soon after. Sharath,his father and coach all believe that the setback in Moscow was probably the best thing that could have happened to him. Max says,“That phase was the alarm Sharath needed to get going. Regarding his potential,I think we have seen only the tip of the iceberg.”

MILESTONES

1956 K Nagraj reaches the quarter finals of the World Championships.

1960 Sudhir Thakersey becomes the only Indian to reach the final of the Asian Championships in Bombay

1967 The Indian men’s team wins a bronze at the Asian Championships in Singapore

1971 Mir Kasim Ali wins a silver in the Commonwealth Championships. The feat is repeated by Kamlesh Mehta and Chetan Babboor

1984 The Indian men’s team is placed 5th in the Asian Championships

2004 Sharath Kamal wins a gold at the Commonwealth Championships

2006 Sharath Kamal wins gold at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne