Ankur Bhattacharya added another feather to his crown. 

Being the country's only youth male table tennis player in recent times, Ankur has qualified for the Youth World Championship this year for the fourth consecutive time. 

Suhana Saini is the other paddler in India among the female paddlers to have qualified for the fourth time in the Youth World Championship. 

The Youth World Championship is scheduled to be held in Sweden from 22nd to 29th November.

Ankur does not have a memorable performance in his three previous appearances in the Youth World Championships. He lost in the Pre-quarter finals twice while he failed to qualify for the final round on one occasion.

This time, the 17-year-old paddler wants to change his fate in the Youth World Championship. “I will be playing in the competition to win the title,” Ankur stated. 

He has a reason behind the confidence. He was in excellent form in his maiden Ultimate Table Tennis League (UTT), winning his matches except for losing to Sharath Kamal once. He upset the world's two top paddlers Austria's Andreas Slavenko and Lillian Bardet of France in the UTT. Then he reached the finals of the under-19 singles in a recently-concluded international competition in Saudi Arabia. 

"I feel I am in good touch now. Additionally, China's Lin Shidong and Felix Lebrun of France, who are the recent champions in the Youth World Championships in recent times, are not participating in the competition and I have been able to beat the other participating top paddlers in the under-19 category across the world in recent times. Then my performance against Manush Shaw in the men’s singles has also been a motivation for me,” added Ankur. 

The country’s number one-ranked youth paddler however is looking forward to Star Contender TT in Doha, taking it as a preparation for the Youth World Championship. He will also obtain the opportunity to prepare himself for the national ranking competition in Goa after returning from Doha. 

Significantly, Indian under-19 team have not been able to qualify for the Youth World Championship this year. The participating paddlers in the tournament will be playing singles, doubles and in the mixed doubles events.