For the first time, India will have both men’s and women’s tennis teams participating in the Olympics.
The Indian team on Monday secured their qualification for the Paris Olympics thanks to their international status. The development comes after the World Cup finals in Busan last month. The event was conducted as a qualifying route for the Games. The Indian team did not qualify for the Paris tournament directly at the event as they did not qualify to compete in the quarterfinals and were eliminated in the pre-quarters.
However, they did well to qualify through the ranks. The top 16 teams qualified for the Olympics and according to the International Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings, the men’s team is ranked 15th, while the women’s team is ranked 13th.
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“It is a great success. It’s a long process. Many thanks to the Executive Committee of the Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), coaches and players for making this happen,” said Kamlesh Mehta, Secretary, TTFI, after the team got their match. G. Sathiyan who is a men’s football player was part of the team and the event was also termed as historic. “It’s a historic achievement. It’s a double advantage that women have managed to qualify for.
Veteran TT star Sharath Kamal, who will be making his fifth and final appearance at the quadrennial event, thanked the team for the show and hopes to do well in Paris. “These will be my last Olympic games. We did well by securing the 15th position in the standings. Denmark, by reaching the quarter-finals, went from 24th to 10th place. They made our work difficult, but we persisted. If we can win the big games and the team events (men and women) in Paris, we can get there, which will be great,” he said.
Harmeeet Desai said he hopes to do just that. He helped India reach the quarterfinals by winning the final match of the tournament against Kazakhstan. “If everything goes well, it will be my first Olympic Games. I hope that the TTFI will release the final list of who will make the team and who will play the doubles (Olympics including doubles and fours) by May so that we have enough time to prepare. ” he said.
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