INTERVIEW- HARMEET DESAI | If Sharath, Manav and I play really well, we can definitely reach the quarterfinal and even semifinal at the Paris Olympics Premium

INTERVIEW- HARMEET DESAI | If Sharath, Manav and I play really well, we can definitely reach the quarterfinal and even semifinal at the Paris Olympics

Harmeet Desai is a big fan of tennis legend Rafael Nadal, who will be competing in his last Olympics in Paris.

The 30-year-old, a Commonwealth Games and Asian Games medallist, hopes to meet the 14-time French Open champion and former World No. 1 during the Olympics. “If I get a chance, I would definitely like to get a picture with him,” said Harmeet, ranked 64 in the world.

A key member of the Indian table tennis team at Paris Olympics along with Sharath Kamal, Harmeet’s performance will be watched with a lot of interest. As one who will be part of the men’s team, singles, and maybe doubles, Harmeet knows the weight of expectations and burden on his shoulders.

“Making it to quarters of the team event will be great for the sport and am keen to make quite a few upsets in singles as well,” Harmeet said.

In an exclusive interview, Harmeet speaks about India’s maiden qualification as a team in Olympics, Massimo Costantini’s influence, and his singles goals at Paris, amongst other things.

Yeah. It has been quite good. I trained under him for the first time in 2009. And this time also, the experience has been good. The intensity he brings into the training camp is good and we’ve had some matches and we are practicing doubles, too. So it’s been quite good to train under him again.

Max (Massimo) already has the plan and in his mind he’s clear. He has just started with us at the camp, but he has followed everyone’s recent past, read and watched our performances on YouTube.