Massimo Costantini returned to India as the national coach of Table Tennis by the end of 2016. By then, Table Tennis and the players were pretty much depleted after a disappointing display in the Rio Olympics. All players exited the tournament in the first round which included, Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Manika Batra and Mouma Das. Costantini had earlier coached India during 2009-10 season. Under Costantini's leadership, the Indian players saw a considerable improvement in their technique, physical fitness and mental tenacity. The players also improved their world rankings, Sharath Kamal won one ITTF World Tour title and of course a five medal winning performance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. To win medals at the International level, players need to perform and win at a consistent level' said Costantini in his interview to the ITTF. But to the surprise of everyone, the table tennis team won Gold at the team events in both Men and Women categories. First, the Women's team stormed into the Finals after defeating England on a 3-0 aggregate, and then blasted away Singapore by an aggregate score of 3-1 in the Finals. Noticeably, Manika Batra defeated Fend Tianwei, No. 4 in the world in her singles match. She had never beaten her before. What a moment to break that duck. The Men's team was not far behind. They met a challenging opponent with Singapore. The semi-finals lit up the stage with a place in the finals up for grab, the play went to the last match. Sharath defeated Xue Jie Pang in straight games to book India's place in the finals. They then met Nigeria in the finals whom, they easily defeated with an aggregate score of 3-0. They also tried different combination of pairs when it came to Mixed Doubles category. To make sure the pairs had balance and complemented each other game style, Sharath Kamal paired up with Mouma Das and reciprocated it with pairing Sathiyan Gnanasekaran with Manika Batra. This combination has worked wonders at Gold Coast, as both pairs have now reached the Semi Finals of the Table Tennis championship. https://twitter.com/TheBridge_IN/status/985088665197019136 With a promising team event outing and securing the prize in both categories, team India can look forward to a promising Singles outing too. Surely, Costantini's work is bearing fruit. With a couple more medals in the Singles event, expectations for this bunch will definitely rise. The World Championships and The Olympics are the next major events to dart out. Hope for the best!
When you look back at previous performances of India at the Commonwealth Games, India had a good show at the 2010 event where they won 5 medals. When you compare their outfit and result of the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, there wasn't really much to show. In all of the table tennis events, India managed to get only a Silver medal in the Men's doubles match that was awarded to Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj. Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai did not advance further than the Quarter finals. Similar was the case with Women's Singles too. The Women's double and the Mixed double events did not bear any fruit as all pairs didn't advance further than the Quarter final. However after the disappointing run in the Olympics, having another dismal run in the Commonwealth Games and the players would know a barrage coming their way, questioning their attitude and desire. Costantini brought in all the players that were training at different facilities to work together. With having them brought together, he made sure players started developing a culture and trusting each other, a feeling of togetherness, a feeling he had inculcated during his earlier stint. Its not like the players needed more pressure with objectives of the magnitude such as Commonwealth, World Championships and Olympics. The motivation to upscale themselves has always been there, but all they needed was a direction and Costantini provided that. When you look at the tournaments between 2016 and 2018, and Manika Batra are the most improved players by far. Sathiyan won the Belgium Open in 2016 and 2017 and had decent runs at various other events throughout the calendar. Manika Batra on a similar note has had a fantastic 2017, where she had some performances in the World Tour events. Sathiyan GnanasekaranThe way I see it, Indian players are never short of talent and potential, but there's always something missing to reach that final pinnacle. They just needed to be guided the right way