If there is another popular racquet sport like tennis in which Chennai’s talented sportsmen have been leaving footprints, it is table tennis. G. Jagannath, V. Chandrasekhar, Hari, S. Raman, J. Premkumar, Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan Anthony Amalraj, R. Balamurugan and R. Akash are some of the talents who shone at the international and national levels.
Tamil Nadu being at the top of this sport along with a few other frontline states like Bengal and Assam, another talented youngster is being seen by coaches as “high rung”. He is Nikhil Menon (17), a rising star from the state with significant achievements in national, and a few times at international competitions. He avers that he owes his creditable journey thus far in the sport to immense encouragement from his parents.
Nikhil’s journey in table tennis began at the age of eight. “We introduced him to cricket. He quickly displayed natural sporting ability and started to perform exceptionally well. Further, to improve his reflexes I introduced him to table tennis as it would also inspire him to develop extraordinary speed and quick decision making to deceive his opponent”, Nikhil’s father explained while speaking to Madras Musings. “But soon Nikhil’s TT coach observed that he naturally possessed game intelligence, tactical awareness and the ability to out think his opponent during a game.” “Nikhil chose to take up TT rather than cricket as he wished to be successful in an individual sport rather than in a team game like cricket. He was attracted to the fact that every win in a table tennis singles matche depended entirely on his own efforts.”
Nikhil, as his father explains, then started pursuing table tennis under the guidance of the well-known coaches, the Rao Brothers – Srinivasa Rao and Muralidhara Rao. They instilled strong technical fundamentals, discipline, work ethics and competitive spirit in the boys.
As his game developed, Nikhil moved to another coach Srivatsa Chakravarthy, who further nurtured his technique and mental balance while facing an opponent. This enabled him to compete successfully even against a few of the “finest Junior players in the world,” says Nikhil’s father, Shivaji.
And, in the competitive arena, Nikhil’s performances at the State and National levels earned him recognition from other coaches and administrators as one of India’s brightest young prospects in the sport. His breakthrough on the international stage came in 2024 when he bagged his maiden Bronze medal in the Under-15 Boys singles competition at the WTT Youth Contender competition at Almaty in Kazakhstan. He picked up another Bronze that year in the Under-15 Mixed Doubles at the WTT Youth Contender event at Amman – the Jordanian capital city. This saw him representing India at the WTT Youth tournaments in Philippines, Slovenia, Croatia and North Macedonia and gaining further experience playing against some talented junior players in those countries.
In 2025 significantly, Nikhil consecutively won Bronze Medals at the first two editions of WTT National Ranking championships in Vadodara and Delhi in the Under-17 Boys Singles category. At the state level, he had an exceptional season that year, when he won in a row four Tamil Nadu State Ranking tournament titles thereby becoming the State’s No 1 in the Under-17 Section. He also emerged the Runner-Up in the (Tamil Nadu) State Championship in 2025, and reached the quarter finals in the National Championships.
And, as his career progressed brightly, this year saw Nikhil being recognised as one of the worlds leading Junior players as he bagged the Gold Medal in the Under-17 Singles at the WTT Youth Contender at Manama in Bahrain with splendid victories against talented juniors along the way. What’s more, he followed this up winning a Silver Medal in the Under-17 Singles at Novisad (Serbia) and Bronze Medal in Mixed Doubles in Under-19 age group in Bulgaria.
At the national level, Nikhil was the Under-12 champion as well as the Sub-junior Champion at Indore in 2021. He won the Gold Medal in the Under-15 Boys Team Event in UTT Cadet and Sub-junior National Championships in 2023. During his school years, after he gave up cricket in favour of table tennis, Nikhil bagged gold medals in the CBSE Inter School Championships in individual and team events in the the Under-14 age group. He also won a silver medal in Under-14 individual and team categories in the CBSE National championships.
— by V. Venkataramana