in state-level competitions. Sharath Kamal has been in top form since his foray into professional table tennis. Domestic career After his success at state meets, Sharath advanced to the national level. He bagged a bronze at 2002 National Games of India in singles and mixed doubles events with Pradeera Thiruvengadam and a sliver medal in team event where in the gold medal match against Bengal he lost his match to Sourav Chakraborty 3-2(11-9, 8–11, 6–11, 11–2, 13–11). Sharath Kamal lost in the final of the senior national championships in 2002. In 2003, Sharath became the National Champion for the first time at the National Table Tennis Championships. He again won the nationals in 2004. From 2006 to 2010, Kamal won the senior nationals five times consecutively. In 2007 nationals, Sharath made a clean sweep of 4 golds. He defeated Sourav Chakraborty in singles final. He and Subhajit Saha defeated Sourav Chakraborty and Anirban Nandi in doubles final. He won mixed doubles gold with Poulomi Ghatak by defeating Subhajit Saha and Nandita Saha. In team event his team PSPB defeated RSPB. In 2009, he again won team event and singles gold by defeating Sourav Chakraborty. He also clinched a bronze in doubles event with Subhajit Saha. He again won the singles title in 2010 nationals by defeating Soumyadeep Roy in a 7 games thrilling match. He also won gold in team event. In 2011, he won the gold in team event. But he lost to Anthony Amalraj in singles final. In 2012, he lost to young Soumyajit Ghosh in finals of 74th senior nationals. But won the team event with PSPB. He lost to Harmeet Desai in semi-finals at 2013-14 nationals. But again managed to win team event. In 2015-16 nationals, he lost to Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in straight games in semi-finals. He defeated Sathiyan in 2018-19 nationals 4–3 to win his ninth national title becoming first player to do and surpassing legendary Kamlesh Mehta's record of 8 titles. He also won team event gold. But Sathiyan got his revenge defeating him in final of 2020-21 nationals. Sharath won his 10th title in 2021-22 nationals by defeating Sathiyan in the singles final. In the match, he was trailing by 3-1 but came back from behind and won the match 4-3(7-11, 12–10, 9–11, 7–11, 12–10, 11–9, 11–6). Professional career 2002: Early Breakthrough The national call-up finally came on the eve of the 2002