Thakkar’s extensive use of AI
Manav Thakkar partnering Manush Shah came very close to upsetting the Korean top pairing in TT at the Asian Games. The 23-year-old Thakkar who hails from Surat has been one of the earliest users of AI analytics in India to aid his training, after application of digital data swept the TT world. 
The 23-year-old first emerged at the 2019 Senior Nationals semis, playing against G Sathiyan. Deepak Malik, experimenting TT coach and brains of Stupa Analytics who brought AI into TT had recalled the match when he would take Thakkar to the venue at 6.30 a.m, and in the next four hours use freshly culled data from earlier matches, to arm him with a surprise weapon. Playing closer to the table, when trailing 5-9 in the decider, Thakkar would blitz the next 6 points on a bounce changing strategy, to win the match. ‘He’d never taken even a game off Sathiyan before. But data helped us devise the strategy,’ Malik had said. 
Two analysts at Stupa are now completely into AI based data for TT – a plugin camera records the match, video goes on Cloud, and results are delivered within minutes. Work on an angle agnostic software was underway. And videos could make way for sensor-based analysis. A simple practice video shot on a telephone can throw up multitude of data – from nature of points won on service, long & short length conversions, types of errors & winners, clusters using Ball heat maps, trend of Ball speed, Video Highlights backing data, stroke and hand type analysis.
Indians might have fallen just short but the data-mining, tech-savvy Thakkar and Shah had their chances against the top Koreans. (By Shivani Naik)