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By Aadi Nair
(Reuters) - India will compete in the men's and women's table tennis team event at the Olympics for the first time at the Paris Games after climbing into the top 16 in the rankings, but coach Massimo Costantini is still not satisfied.
India's table tennis team have had some success at the Commonwealth Games but have failed to match that at the Olympics and Asian Games.
However, their qualification for the team events, introduced in 2008, has renewed hopes of a first-ever Olympic medal in the sport, with the Indian men's team ranked 14th in the world as of July, while the women's team was 11th.
"I think making the team event is already a big achievement, because being in the top 16 in the world is not easy," Costantini told Reuters.
"But for me it's (the rankings) too close, like wearing clothes that are too tight. You're not comfortable, you need to be comfortable to perform as required.
"My goal is to not to fight at the last minute to make the top 16, but to be in the top 10, top eight, or even top four. To not even have the doubt whether India will play in the team events at the Olympics or not."
One of India's leading prospects at the Olympics will be 2018 Commonwealth Games champion Manika Batra, who broke into the top 25 this year and achieved a career-high ranking of 24 after her victory at the Saudi Smash in May.
Batra (ranked 28) and Sreeja Akula (ranked 25), are among the women leading India's charge up the rankings.
"We have to be consistent in taking opportunities. We don't want just sporadic occasional results that make us climb the world ranking. We need more stability," Costantini said.
"Manika was up there for almost one year, hovering between 35 and 38. She was maintaining her performances quite well, and then one competition helped her make that jump. The women have had great results, they did well. But we can do much better."
The Italian coach added that he has been using data provided by artificial intelligence to improve his players, with the team partnering up with Indian sports analytics company Stupa Sports Analytics for a training camp.
"Technology and AI can help have a better understanding of performance. Sometimes the words of the coach are not enough," added Costantini, who returned to the Indian table tennis set up for a third stint this year.
"Besides the words we can have something objective. You can think you played well, but through these reports and data, you know you actually were just okay, or you think you played horrible and actually were very, very good.
"We're just making little adjustments, like they do in motorsport, where small details can reduce the time maybe by one millisecond. In table tennis, it is exactly the same."
The Olympic table tennis tournament will take place at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from July 27 to Aug. 10.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)
