Ankur Bhattacharya, probably the best paddler from Bengal in recent times, has been in tremendous form. Looking at the last six to seven national-ranking competitions so far this year, Ankur has not bowed out before the last-four stage in any of the competitions. Additionally, he won gold medals in the junior national championship in singles, and doubles, in the national-ranking zonal championships, and in the doubles and mixed doubles events of the senior national championship. Ankur won the last gold medal in the Youth South Asian Table Tennis singles on Thursday. 

India's number one-ranked paddler in the junior level and fifth-ranked in the men's category has also placed himself at 22nd ranking in the under-17 category released by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). Being the 22nd ranked player in the world Ankur has been selected by the Table Tennis Federation (TTFI) to take part in the WTT Youth Star Contender championship, to be held in Brazil and Peru from 21st July to 1st July. These championships will be the qualification tournament for the World TT Championship, to be held in August. 

Ankur revealed, "Only those paddlers whose world rankings are within one to 32, participate in this competition. Union sports ministry and TTFI are sending me. Performance in this competition will help India to gather more points and qualify for the World Championship. So, it is an important task for me. I will try my best."

Ankur dreams of winning medals in international tournaments. Having entered the men's category this year for the first time, Ankur has already upset India's top men's paddlers including G. Sathiyan in the doubles event of the senior national championships and the public sector championship. Looking forward to these two important international competitions, Ankur is excited and has started more intense training under the guidance of his father and coach Angshuman Bhattacharya. Apart from variation in multi-ball training, Ankur has also started training with the ball that will be used in the WTT Youth Star Contender championships. 

North Kolkata District Table Tennis Association has decided to felicitate the paddler for his outstanding consistency and the gold medal in South Asian TT. Ankur has the only regret for Bengal Table Tennis Association's (BTTA) negligence towards him so far.