Last year, at the ITTF Women's World Cup in Weihai, China, Romania's Bernadette Szőcs received guidance from her coach Cristian Tamas in between games. This was not unusual, nor was the result (Szőcs got mauled by world #1 Chen Meng of China). It was, however, a decidedly modern twist that Coach Tamas was watching the match from back home in Romania. Three months later and 8100 miles to the west, technology again makes the world smaller. After a sweaty workout with her team, Austria's third-ranked woman Liu Jia (pictured) chats with a curious cohort of 35 junior players. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about this, except that the eager youngsters are 1300 kilometers away in England. After watching Liu's team, Linz AG Froschberg, practice via Zoom, Liu graciously chatted and answered questions for 45 minutes over the now-ubiquitous video chat service. Meanwhile, over 5500 kilometers east-southeast in India, technology is also serving as a powerful training tool. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, 28, is an engineer from Chennai, India. He also happens to be the second-ranked table tennis player in the country. The tech-savvy Gnanasekaran uses a table tennis robot at home, helping him to stay sharp during 2020 when there was no international competition. Now, Gnanasekaran is testing ball-tracking technology in his training. “All I need to do is place my mobile phone and record the game,” says Gnanasekaran. “The recording will be fed into the software and we will have data in a few minutes.” Gnanasekaran is now testing the app in real matches at 82nd Senior National Table Tennis Championship, currently underway in Panchkula. With his technological edge, Gnanasekaran aims to claim his elusive first national men's singles championship. “It is early to state that I am seeing a tangible change in my game because of this software,” continued Gnanasekaran. “But, over a period of time, this data will help my game immensely. More importantly, practice sessions have become more fun with all of us having numbers on speed, trajectory, distance to analyze our game.” Gnanasekaran's coach S Raman, himself a former national champion, sees the technology as a potential catapult for India's rise to prominence in global table tennis. “The results are almost real time," marvels Raman. "With so much data available through this software, it could prove to be a game-changer for TT players in India.” The necessities forced by the pandemic have already mothered many innovations in table tennis. It remains to be seen how the pandemic will reshape our sport, but there is no doubt that it has accelerated the use of technology therein.

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