Table tennis world mourns Chandra’s demise
Former players, including some contemporaries of V. Chandrasekar, and two current stars paid glowing tributes to the three-time National table tennis champion.
G. Jagannath: When I first saw Chandra, during the 1969 State championship, he was around 11-years old. He was confidence-personified and remained positive throughout his life despite all the setbacks he faced.
Kamlesh Mehta: A terrific fighter. Extremely stylish player to watch. Chandra was a great team man and played hard. Never gave up, either on a table tennis table or in life. Not just that, he gave back to the sport as a coach and produced a number of players.
Manjit Dua: Chandra was a very intelligent player. He never believed in giving up. He loved the sport and even though his career as a player came to a premature end, he gave it all in coaching. He gave the country a number of quality players, some of whom went on to win the Arjuna Award.
S. Ramaswamy: Very humble and soft-spoken, Chandra was from a generation that produced players with sound basics. He was a quick learner. Initially, he appeared to be a single-dimension player, relying mainly on his forehand, but later he improved his backhand play and did consistently well.
Monalisa Mehta: For me, his forehand drives were simply superlative. After his training in Japan (in the academy run by twice World champion Ichiro Ogimura), the way he executed those powerful forehand top-spin drives from the corner of the table, was a treat to watch.
A. Srinivasa Rao (Dronacharya Awardee): From 1976-83 he was mostly unbeatable in TN, he played the same strokes differently, and was really a crowd-puller.
S. Raman: Chandra was a fighter all through his life. My one-year stint, as his ward, was quite fruitful as I reached the final of the Senior National championships in Jaipur in 1991.
Sharath Kamal: Chandra Sir was a gifted sportsman and a hands-on coach.
G. Sathiyan: My entire junior career and the medals I won, I owe it to Chandra Sir. It’s a personal loss.
TTFI president Dushyant Chautala: It was very unfortunate that table tennis has lost another person to the dreaded disease. We recently lost Suhas Kulkarni and now Chandra. We all will miss his persona. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
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