Who is Sathiyan Gnanasekaran?

The seasoned Indian pair of Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan was outsmarted by familiar foes Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford of England in the men’s doubles final at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday. 

Also read: Who is Nikhat Zareen, India’s history-making boxer?

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is an Indian professional Table Tennis player. He currently is ranked world number 35, according to the International Table-Tennis Federation ranking. 

Gnanasekaran was born on January 8, 1993, in Chennai city of Tamil Nadu. In September 2016, Sathiyan made his debut on the table tennis world stage by winning the men’s singles division of the ITTF Challenge Belgium Open. It was his first title on an international level. He secured the first victory to claim the gold medal at an ITTF European level in the Belgium open in 2016.

Also Read: Watch: Annu Rani’s historic bronze-winning javelin throw at Commonwealth Games 2022

In 2017, he won two tournaments, becoming the first ever Table-Tennis player from India to claim this feat. His victories were in the ITTF Spanish Open and Almeria Open that year. The World number 35 participated in his first Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, in April 2018, winning three medals. In the 2018 Asian Games, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won the Bronze Medal.

Sathiyan made his first World Cup appearance on November 29, 2019. In May 2019, Sathiyan achieved a career-high world ranking of 24 to become the first table tennis player from India to ever enter the top 25 in the ITTF rankings. Sathiyan participated in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics in  2021.

Also Read: Commonwealth Games: Amit Panghal, Nitu Ghanghas win boxing gold medals

He is a recipient of the 2018 Arjuna Award. During the course of his career up to this time, he has won the following medals:-

* 2018 Asia Games – Bronze( Team)

* 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games – 

     1) Gold – Team     2) Silver – Doubles      3) Bronze- Mixed Singles

* 2021 Doha Asian Championships –

     1) Bronze – Team, Doubles

* ITTF Challenge – 

      1) 2016 Belgium – Gold (Singles)      2) 2017 Spain – Gold (Spain)

* ITTF Major – 

       1)  2017 Bulgaria – Silver (Doubles)

        2) 2021 Budapest – Gold (Doubles) 

        3) 2021 Czech Republic – Gold (Singles) 

* ITTF Platinum – 

     1) 2019 Geelong – Bronze (Doubles)

  * ITTF Challenge Plus –

      1) 2019 Muscat – Bronze (Singles)

He also currently works for ONGC.