was the first Indian to win the Pyongyang Invitational Tournament held at Pyongyang, North Korea. This was the 21st edition of the tournament which was held in August 2007. His best performance on the world circuit came in the Japan Pro Tour held in June 2007 where he beat World No.19, Lee Jung Woo (South Korea). After this victory he reached his career best ranking of World No. 73 and in January 2011 his ranking was 44. Incidentally, Sharath was also the only Indian Men's Table Tennis player to be selected for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In the season 2010–11 he also played in the German major league (Bundesliga) for TSV Gräfelfing and has been one of the best players in the league with wins over top German TT players. He played for SV Werder Bremen in the 2011–12 season. During 2012–13, he played in the Swedish league before returning to Germany in May 2013 to sign for Borussia Düsseldorf. Known as the "Rekordmeisters", Borussia Düsseldorf is one of the best clubs in Europe. Sharath and the team also won the Deutsche Pokal for the year 2013, a prestigious cup tournament in Germany. Currently the team is ranked second in the Bundesliga season 2013–14. Sharath qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics after beating Iran's Noshad Alamian in the Asian Olympic qualification. However, he made a first round exit in the men's individual event losing to Adrian Crișan of Romania. He is an alumnus of PSBB Nungambakkam school (class of 2000) and Loyola College, Chennai. He is employed with the Indian Oil Corporation as an officer. Early Life and Career Sharath was introduced to Table Tennis by his father at the age of 4. Sharath's father along with his uncle Muralidhar Rao taught him the technicalities of the game and groomed him to be a professional paddler. Both his father and uncle were state-level players and national-level coaches. Sharath couldn't handle his mental attitude as he would always want to win rather than accept defeat. The defeat was something that he would often get frustrated at. His father and uncle helped him with mental conditioning. Sharath's uncle had made a strict rule for him to deal with his frustration. He had spent his time practicing Table Tennis with his uncle before and after school every day. At the age of 16, Sharath Kamal began his professional career and took part