Sharath Kamal

Achanta Sharath Kamal (born 12 July 1982) is an Indian professional table tennis player.

[7] Sharath won the men's singles gold in the 16th Commonwealth table tennis championship held at Kuala Lumpur in 2004.

He teamed up with Subhajit Saha to win the Men's Doubles gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Sharath's father along with his uncle Muralidhar Rao taught him the technicalities of the game and groomed him to be a professional paddler.

He bagged a bronze at 2002 National Games of India in singles and mixed doubles events with Pradeera Thiruvengadam and a silver medal in team event where in the gold medal match against Bengal he lost his match to Sourav Chakraborty 3–2(11–9, 8–11, 6–11, 11–2, 13–11).

He again won the singles title in 2010 nationals by defeating Soumyadeep Roy in a 7 games thrilling match.

[27][28] The national call-up finally came on the eve of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, where he was selected for a 16-member probables training camp.

Although he was not selected for main squad the experience at the camp gave him confidence and the exposure to top-level players made him better.

Sharath was selected for 2003 World Table Tennis Championships alongside Chetan Baboor and Sourav Chakraborty.

He also won men's doubles first round match with Chetan Baboor defeating Santoago Coste and Hector Berrios of Puerto Rico 9–11, 11–7, 11–6, 11–4.

But lost mixed doubles first round match with Pradeera Thiruuengadam to Indika Silva and Deepika Rodrigo of Sri Lanka 11–8, 10–12, 8–11, 11–9, 8–11.

[31] He made a promising start against 57th ranked Christophe Legout of France as he won the opening game 11–2.

But the Frenchman overcame the early hiccups to take the next four games 11–6, 11–6, 15–13, 11–6 comfortably to win the match 4–1 and end Sharath's campaign.

He opened his team's account by defeating Farjad Saif Khan in straight games after that his compatriots Subhajit Saha and Soumyadeep Roy completed the formalities to win the gold medal.

He and Roy reached men's doubles final by defeating Sri Lankan duo Thilina Laknath and Indika Prasad 3–1(11–4, 11–4, 9–11, 11–7) in semi-finals.

He reached singles final by defeating Rajendra Kapali of Nepal and Piyadasa Thilina Laknath of Sri Lanka both in straight games.

In the mixed doubles, he and Mamta Prabhu got a walkover from Bode Abiodun and Atisi Owoh of Nigeria in the first round.

This was his first ever match win in world Championships, But lost in the second round to Serbian pair of Aleksandar Karakašević and Slobodan Grujić 12–10,11–5,11–6,11–3.

In the mixed doubles event, he paired up with Poulomi Ghatak but lost in the first round to Xu Xin and Guo Yan 9–11,13–11,5–11,4–11 and 6–11.

[45] In March 2021, Sharath played at WTT Star Contender Doha, where he upset Patrick Franziska in the round of 32.

He had a 1st round exit in singles after losing to Anton Källberg whereas in doubles he paired up Sathiyan Gnanasekaran but lost to Lim Jong-hoon and Jang Woo-jin 0–3.

Kamal faced upcoming Chinese Star Yuan Licen in the semi-finals which became a 1 hour long hard fought match which he eventually lost 4–3(5–11,11–8,6–11,11–7,11–5,10–12 and 9–11).

[47] On the day of his 40th birthday Kamal defeated Enzo Angles and Vitor Ishiy to qualify for the main draw of WTT Star Contender European Series.

[48] 40-year-old Sharath Kamal won his 4th medal at the [Commonwealth Games] in Birmingham when he defeated Liam Pitchford of England to win Gold in the Men's Singles table tennis category.

Earlier he won Gold in Men's Team in this sports meet with Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & Sanil Shetty at .

[49][50] In July 2023, Sharath Kamal's team Chennai Lions came second in Ultimate Table Tennis season 4.

[54] After playing for San Sebastian in the Spanish league for a while, he moved to the German Tischtennis-Bundesliga for TSV Gräfelfing in the 2010/2011 season.

However, since this dissolved and Sharath Kamal could not join a new club because the change period had expired, he kept fit as a non-club at the Trainingszentrum DTTZ in Düsseldorf.

In 2013, Borussia Düsseldorf signed him for a year to replace Christian Süss, who was injured on a long-term basis, and became German champions several times with the team and cup winner.