Fortified with the speedily rustled up Czech title, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan recollects a time, just some weeks again, when he sat together with his coach Subramaniam Raman to observe a replay of his match on the Olympics. He watched the video of himself racing to a good-looking 3-1 lead in opposition to World No 90 Siu Hang Lam of Hong Kong, earlier than the wheels fell off and he misplaced 4-3. He lets out a small giggle when he says he watched the video of his opening spherical loss “three or four times.”
“I had a complete analysis of that match. What went right, what went wrong, and at what moments did I start to play safe,” he says. “And it’s a must to watch these matches with none emotion.
“It did take a few days to come out of that. I’ve never felt that way, that bad, about losing from a winning position. I’ve had bad losses in my career and that was one of them. But I’ve never had a bad run.”
Those tough moments, of watching the recording of a spectacular and stunning defeat with a straight-face, stayed with him as he travelled to Olomouc, within the japanese province of Czech Republic. The Olympics have been over, however the worldwide tour went on. And Sathiyan confirmed late on Wednesday that he too had moved on from that Tokyo heartbreak.
BACK WITH A BANG💪😍Extremely pleased to win the Men singles title on the 2021 ITTF Czech International open in a dominant manner with out dropping a set right here at Olomouc✌️✌️
The wait was value it to elevate my third worldwide ITTF title after a spot of 4 years😁❤️💪 pic.twitter.com/aIAWCwzVlb
— Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (@sathiyantt) August 25, 2021
The World No 39 and prime seed on the ITTF Czech International Open put the current failure behind him to win his profession’s third tour title. And this was by far, probably the most dominant exhibiting by him at an occasion as he went on to win it with out dropping a set.
While the event was a particular step down from the excessive octanes of Olympics and he was certainly one of solely two Top 100 participant within the fray, it was a morale-restoring and reassuring title victory for somebody who had been shattered by the Olympics disappointment.
All by the occasion, from his opening spherical win in opposition to World No 723 Czech participant Tomas Koldas to the 11-9, 11-6, 11-6, 14-12 win within the closing in opposition to fourth seeded Ukraine’s World No 111 Yevhen Pryshchepa, he stored the teachings from Tokyo with him.
“The opponent is always coming back, so you have to keep changing strategy. That’s the thing I didn’t do in Tokyo,” he explains.
“I had my Plan B and Plan C, but didn’t change. When you start thinking about winning you sometimes don’t think too much. (Lam) changed strategy, but I didn’t.”
Sathiyan confronted one thing related within the closing in opposition to Pryshchepa as properly, after he raced to a 3-0 lead. The Ukrainian began serving extra in direction of Sathiyan’s backhand and was concentrating on that space with aggressive photographs.
Proud second to be topped because the champion of ITTF Czech worldwide open 2021😁💪#sathiyantt #tabletennis #sports activities #ittf pic.twitter.com/HD9aKyxsl8
— Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (@sathiyantt) August 25, 2021
It helped him go to a 5-0 lead in opposition to the Indian within the fourth sport. That’s when the teachings from Tokyo began to kick in.
“I knew what he was doing. He was getting into position early because he realised my backhand returns of serve were more central,” the 28-year-old says.
“The hesitation to try the big shots in those key moments pulled me back at Tokyo. But now I started to hit more aggressively on my returns. I started going for the corners to throw him off, even during rallies. I was 5-0 down and changed gears, then I was 9-5 down, and then I brought it to deuce. My decision making had improved and I was going for shots.”
His first ever Olympic look was the primary aggressive match he had performed since he secured a berth for the occasion at a qualification event in March. For almost 5 months he was in need of match play, and he assumes that’s what hindered him in Tokyo. It’s that disappointment that made the title in Olomouc all of the extra necessary for him.
“It’s a special title coming at the right time,” he says.
Mixing play, making fast choices and considering instinctively, by his admission, have come naturally to him. It’s what’s helped him get to the World No 24 rank – the perfect ever achieved by an Indian. It helped him beat the likes of World No 4 Tomokazu Harimoto. And it helped him power the nice Ma Long to take a time-out after they performed on the Asian Cup in 2019 (a number of days after the Tokyo Olympic champion was seen sizing Sathiyan’s sport up throughout a pre-event apply session).
This title exhibits him he’s getting again to these methods.
“It gave me the assurance,” he says as he lets out one other giggle, “that I was back to the old Sathiyan mode.”
