Sathiyan announced himself in the world stage in Table Tennis when he won the ITTF Challenge Belgium Open title in the men's singles category in September 2016.

With this victory, he became the first Indian table tennis player to win an ITTF event on European soil.

In August 2018, He also played an important role by winning both his matches against Japan in the Men Team category quarterfinals and won a historic bronze medal at the Asian Games 2018 held at Jakarta for the first time ever after a gap of 60 years.

In September 2019, he pulled off the biggest win of his career by defeating the Japanese prodigy Tomokazu Harimoto in straight sets at the Asian TT Championships 2019.

In the same event, he also gave a stellar performance by becoming the first Indian ever after a gap of 43 years to reach the Quarterfinals in Men Singles category.