Kanak Jha Archives

WTTC Interviews: Kanak Jha

January 12, 2022

1. How do feel about reaching quarter final of Men’s singles at WTTC? It is kind of a bittersweet feeling in the end. It is definitely my best performance so far in my career, and something I never would have dreamed to be possible even a few years ago. However, I mostly feel disappointed that […]

Two-time Olympian Jha visits Cary, shares his love for table tennis

August 16, 2021

(By Chris Lea, WRAL-TV Sports anchor/reporter) After competing in table tennis in Tokyo, the first stop for Kanak Jha was Cary, North Carolina. “It’s a really beautiful place,” Jha said about the town. It’s Jha’s first time being in Cary. He’s a native of Milpitas, California, however in March his mom decided to move to […]

Table Tennis Star Returns to Bay Area to Prepare for Tokyo Olympic Games

May 3, 2021

(By Ian Cull/NBC Bay Area) The youngest American athlete from the 2016 games in Rio is now fighting his way back to the top in table tennis for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He also happens to be from the Bay Area. Kanak Jha has spent the past 10 years perfecting his game at table tennis. […]

DÜSSELDORF MASTERS: Kanak Jha Videos

June 10, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) With competitive table tennis back in Germany a few weeks before sanctioned events can be played in the US, we thought our viewers might enjoy watching the American Champion in competition. Kanak Jha had respectable results in his first tournament since the layoff. The Dusseldorf Masters is a three tournament series. Jha […]

Ovtcharov and Jha in Action in Dusseldorf

June 10, 2020

by Steve Hopkins (These photos and the full article *in German* can be found at tischtennis.de) A week ago, Timo Boll won the first installment of the Dusseldorf Masters, a tournament series held at the team facility of Borussia Dusseldorf and with the support of the German Table Tennis Federation. The top players in Germany […]

Kanak’s Voice

May 20, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) On Tuesday night’s finale of NBC’s musical competition series “The Voice”, there was a segment promoting the Olympics. The show hosts were paired with Olympic athletes and given a quick preview of those athlete’s sports. The hosts then tried to participate. Blake Shelton tried Olympic Curling, John Legend tried Artistic Swimming, and […]

World Cup Invitations: Kanak Jha to Join World’s Best in Chengdu

August 15, 2019

(by Steve Hopkins/Photo by ITTF) The 2019 ITTF Men’s World Cup is one of the annual highlights of the ITTF calendar. This year, the event will be held in Chengdu, China beginning on November 29th. There are 20 players who are invited each year based upon qualifying events and the August World Rankings. The current World Champions is […]

US Nationals: Through an Historic Lens

July 7, 2019

(by Steve Hopkins/Photo by Karuna Jain) FIVE Lily Zhang’s win at the 2019 Nationals raises her even further in the listing of historic US champions. This is her fifth US National Championship title, and only a very few American women have ever accomplished this feat. Insook Bhushan has won eleven, Gao Jun has won eight, and […]

Croatia Open: Kanak shines in the U21, Adriana made the Women’s QF, and an All-Butterfly Men’s Final

May 20, 2019

(By Steve Hopkins/Photo by ITTF) Zagreb was host this week to the Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Croatia Open. As a part of the Challenge Series, the tournament did not feature Top 20 players, but Chuang Chih-Yuan (No. 25), Dristian Karlsson (No. 32), and Kanak Jha (No. 40) leading the way, there were 13 players in […]

Review 2018: Graduation year for Kanak Jha

December 24, 2018

Review 2018: Graduation year for Kanak Jha (by Ian Marshall, Editor) It was not the finish to the year for which Kanak Jha had hoped; a second round exit in the Boys’ Singles event at the World Junior Championships followed by a third round Men’s Singles defeat in Orlando at the United States Open; the […]