Chennai:Three-time National table tennis champion, Arjuna awardee and former Indian player V.Chandrasekar died here on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19. He was 63.He is survived by his wife and a son. Chandrasekar, who was popularly called as ‘Chandra’ in the Table
Tennis fraternity, was undergoing treatment at a private hospital. However, he died due to COVID related complications, including lung involvement. He was the President of Tamizhaga Table Tennis Association.
He was also the Director and head coach of the SDAT-Medimix TT Academy in Mogappair (Chennai), which has groomed several top players.Current Indian paddler G Sathiyan was among his trainees. International stars like S.Raman, Arul Selvi, Chetan Baboor, N.R. Indu, M.S. Mythili and Preyesh are among the players
who were groomed by Chandra. The Chennai-born player, who had reached the semifinals of
the Commonwealth Games in 1982, was also a successful coach.His playing career was cut short in 1984 following a botched up surgery on his right knee at a popular hospital here which had affected his mobility.
However, he fought a long legal battle with the hospital, won the case, recovered and serve the game as a successful coach. The table tennis fraternity condoled his death, saying the sport
had lost a legend.