Year of many firsts for Sathiyan as he takes over the mantle from Sharath

The sprightly G Sathiyan came of age to take over the leadership mantle in Indian table tennis from veteran A Sharath Kamal in a year which saw paddlers produce memorable performances despite the lack of a full-time coach.

For a decade and a half, Sharath was India's lone warrior on the big stage but now he too is relieved that he has got a fast-improving Sathiyan for company.

"It's time (we had someone else taking over the leadership responsibility). Sathiyan is improving rapidly in the international arena and I am really happy for him," said the 37-year-old Sharath, arguably the finest table tennis player India has produced.

If 2018 was about India doing exceedingly well at the Commonwealth and Asian Games, 2019 was mainly about Sathiyan making his mark at the highest level where he defeated quite a few top-20 players, including world number five and young Japanese teenage sensation Harimoto Tomokazu.

The 26-year-old also became the first Indian to break into the top-25 of the ITTF .