Sharath Kamal eyeing top-50 ranking

The 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships get underway in Lucknow on Monday, and Achanta Sharath Kamal is hoping to use the opportunity to break into the top 50 in the world rankings. However, the lanky Tamil Nadu-born Olympian feels it will not be as easy as it seems.

"I want to break into the top-50; that's my target for now. It's a tough pool and you have to play consistently and win consistently to improve your ranking. So it's going to be a tough ask, said Kamal on the eve of the event.

The defending Commonwealth champion prepared for the tournament in Germany.

"The Ochsenhausen [the club he trained at] experience has helped me a lot. The gap and quality is very high in Europe, so it helped me a lot.

"I think I have improved a lot as a player. My speed, accuracy and fitness seems to have improved," he added.

The seven-day tournament is being held for the second time in India and Kamal is looking to use the experience to prepare for next year's Commonwealth Games.

India is seeded fourth, behind Singapore, Canada and Nigeria in the tournament.

"It's a good opportunity to fine-tune our skills for the Commonwealth Games. Playing at home, the pressure will be on the home team to perform well.

"It's a good opportunity to prepare for the 2010 Games. We have done well in China during our preparation camp and are looking to continue the good work," he said.

However, Kamal feels the competition on and pressure will be higher at Asian Championships than the Worlds.

"This is the one of the toughest competitions. As we all know, Asia is the powerhouse of table tennis and the top fifty players are from Asia.

"The World Championships are relatively easy, as you play Europeans and Italians. But, having said that, every tournament win or every match won is a little milestone. It's the right step in the right direction.

"Here (at the Asian Championships), even if you beat couple of good players, it boosts your rankings," he added.

Kamal was also effusive in praise of the Indian team's Italian coach, Massimo Constantini, who is assigned the job of training the players till the Commonwealth Games.

"Max (Constantini) has helped us a lot. He has helped us realize more things and it is largely helped by the fact that he himself was a good player," he said.

Kamal, however, will return to Europe after the Asian Championships to continue with his training.

"I will go back to Europe after this. The top players there are in tournament mode every weekend, so I will go back and improve on my game further."