Ankur Bhattacharya, the country’s prodigious youth table tennis player has finally placed himself in the men’s Indian squad for the WTT Men’s championship. He believes that showing his best in the men’s category should be the place to earn respect from the country’s table tennis fraternity and he achieved it only at 17! 

Ankur, the two-time under-19 national champion had an impressive performance in the men’s category this season. He took part in three national-ranking competitions this season including the senior national championship which took place last year. 

He won the men's title in Goa, lost in the semi-final, and finished as the runner-up in the other two national ranking tournaments. He even reached the last-four in the senior national championship! His noticeable performance has already drawn the attention of the country's top paddlers including Sharath Kamal, even the attention of Massimo Costantini. Even he was selected to play the doubles with Sharath Kamal in Doha. 

But Ankur is not going to Doha. Rather he has set his focus on a hat-trick in the junior national championship, his last junior national championship which is scheduled to be held from 6th to 11th January, during the same time the Indian men's squad will be busy in Doha. 

Speaking over the phone from Bangalore on Saturday Ankur explained, “This will be my last junior national championship. I will be 18 in the next year and then I will have ample time to play in men's competitions. That is why, I preferred the junior national championship. I have won the junior national championship twice. It will be a hat-trick if I win this time."

His performance in the recently-held Youth World Championship was not up to the mark. Ankur clarified, “It would have been better if I had some more days to train and prepare.”