new delhi indias most decorated table tennis player sharath kamal won his first international title in 10 years on sunday but midway into the competition the 37yearold was forced to wonder if he made the mistake of his life by travelling to oman amid the covid19 pandemicas the news of sporting events getting suspended or postponed around the world started trickling in sharath was in muscat for the ittf challenge plus eventthe polish open happening around the same time was suspended and the world body announced suspension of all activities until the end of aprilin these extraordinary times confusion and chaos in the minds of the players was bound to follow sharath was in muscat with other indian players including singles number three harmeet desaiwhen i heard about the polish open being suspended i thought i made a big big mistake by coming here sharath who was relieved to be back with his wife and kids in chennai in the wee hours of monday saidas a precautionary measure he has decided to selfquarantine himself at home though the screening at the chennai airport showed his body temperature was normalin times like these you obviously think about your family and they are worried about you but when it was confirmed that the tournament would go on i had to focus on the job said the world number 38 who beat portugals marcos freitas in the final an opponent ranked 12 places higher than himthe indian whose previous title came in egypt in 2010 battled past freitas 42 with the final game stretching to 1715 it was his first win over his portuguese opponent on the ittf tour having lost to him in german bundesliga way back in 2010sharath was pushed to the limit in the semifinals also before pipping russias kirill skachkov in a sevengame contestthis tournament was my buildup to the olympics qualifiers but now that everything is suspended i dont know how to feel i won a tournament after a long time my game is coming along nicely but there are no tournaments at least for the next one and a half monthshaving said that it is satisfying to come home with a title both final and semifinal were tough whenever i train with freitas i am losing most of the points but in the match i was able to outguess himhe knew that forehand is my biggest weapon so he focussed on my backhand which worked beautifully last night i had to go for my shots and they came off he added