"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential..." wrote Confucius. "These are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence." Strangely enough, India's all-time table tennis champion Sharath Kamal Achanta does not seem to share this Confucian philosophy. Heading into the 2020 India national table tennis championships, the nine-time champion Achanta seemed downright lackadaisical. "Here, people expect me to win my 10th singles title but I’m not losing my sleep over it," said the 37-year-old veteran. "I’ll give it a shot but will not be too disappointed if I don’t win." It was fortunate for Achanta that he was emotionally prepared for this possibility, as his title defense was derailed in the round of 64 by Soumyajit Ghosh. Again, Achanta seemed rather blasé about the proceedings. "I was not in the match today," he said afterward. "Perhaps, he needed to win more badly than me. I’m happy for Ghosh." In contrast, last year's finalist Sathiyan Gnanasekaran came into the tournament with high hopes. After he, Achanta and the rest of the Indian team failed to secure Olympic qualification at last month's ITTF World Team Qualification Tournament in Portugal, Gnanasekaran was eager to build momentum in singles competition. "I value the National title," confided Gnanasekaran. "I know, things did not go my way in Portugal recently but I’m confident of producing my best here." Unfortunately for Gnanasekaran, currently India's highest-ranked player, his slow start to 2020 would carry over into February. His national title bid was halted in the semifinals by Manav Thakkar, who would go on to lose the title to Harmeet Desai. Since neither Achanta's indifference nor Gnanasekaran's all-consuming passion proved to be the successful formula, how did Desai prepare to take the national title? It turns out it was nothing but good, old-fashioned hard work, in this case at the Axton Centre in Germany. "Ever since I started training at the center where I get to play with world’s top paddlers, I have improved in my blocks and shot selections," Desai explained afterward. The Indian team, rudderless for a year and a half after coach Massimo Costantini's retirement, could use such simple but effective advice heading into the Word Championships and Olympics. Of course, the will to win never hurts either.

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