67 year old Yogesh Desai from Mumbai has become the first veteran Table Tennis player to find World Ranking among Top 10 in the 65+ age group this year, as per the latest rankings released now by ITTF. Last year he was ranked 37th. It may be recalled that Yogesh has participated in 7 World Veterans TT championships so far and will be playing the 8th one at Bordaux, France in coming June 2020. He has also won the masters’ National Championship at Jaipur in 2018 in Men’s 65 +age group, while playing for Maharashtra. He has also helped Maharashtra 65+ team to win the National TT championship for the third consecutive year. Even earlier he had won the Masters’ National Championship in 50+ and 60+ respectively. Earlier he represented Gujarat state Men’s team and played and gave his best till the age of 48. Later, he played in the veterans category.
Yogesh’s best performance was at the World Veterans Tournament at Doha during the last quarter of year 2019, where he won Silver medal in Individual Singles and Gold in doubles. This has helped him to jump to higher ranking. Yogesh could not particiape the WVT tournament in Cardiff in December 2019, as he was to participate in Nationals. His past record at the international level is , Bronze medalist at Pattaya Asian Veterans TT Championship in Men’s 50+ and Silver medal in team championship. He also won the Gold medal in team championship event at South Asian Veteran TT Championship at Colombo, Sri.Lanka in 2017. In the last World Veterans TT Championship at Las Vegas, h playd Quarter finals in Men’s Doubles 65+ category.
Yogesh has been playing competitive Table Tennis non stop for the past 54 years, without taking a break , which is very rarely found among sportspersons. Having represented Gujarat state in Juniors and Men’s section at National championships , he migrated to Mumbai in 1985. In the last 15 years he has won 30 medals at The masters national TT Championships. Yogesh is also passionate in promotion and welfare of Table Tennis in various roles as an able administrator , promoter etc. Magzmumbai wishes him all the best so as to enable him to achieve higher ranking and also work towards the promotion and welfare of Table Tennis.