Indian Paddler Manika Batra Achieves Career-Best Position in TT World Rankings

Top-ranked Indian Table Tennis star Manika Batra has claimed 10 positions in the latest ITTF World Rankings.

Indian paddler Manika Batra achieved her career-best ranking of 38 in women's singles after she climbed 10 places in the latest ITTF Table Tennis World Rankings, released on Tuesday.

The Olympian was ranked 48th in women's singles last week. Batra broke into the top 50 earlier this year and rose to 46th in March, her previous career-best standing, before dropping down to 48.

The 26-year-old Batra is India's top-ranked women's singles table tennis player on the list followed by Archana Kamath at 66th, who moved up 26 places this week. Sreeja Akula, 68th, and Reeth Tennison, 97th, are the other Indian table tennis players in the top 100.

However, Tokyo Olympian Sutirtha Mukherjee slipped 22 spots and dropped to 119th. Ayhika Mukherjee also moved down six spots and is 121st.

Batra also features in the top 10 of both the mixed and women's doubles rankings. Manika and Archana Kamath, who won bronze at the WTT Star Contender Doha in March, retained their fourth spot in the women's doubles rankings. Sutirtha and Ayhika are the next best-ranked Indian team at 29th.

In mixed doubles, Manika and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, silver medallists at the WTT Contender Doha 2022, moved up a spot to sixth. Archana Kamath and Harmeet Desai, finalists at the WTT Contender Muscat, remained stagnant in the 22nd spot in the mixed doubles standings, an olympics.com report said.

In the men's singles, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is now the top-ranked Indian at 34th after moving up five places. Sathiyan leapfrogged his senior colleague Sharath Kamal, who gained a solitary place and is 37th.

Manush Shah (109), Snehit Suravajjula (114), and Manav Thakkar (115) complete the top five Indians in the world singles rankings. G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai are the best-placed Indian men's doubles pair at 28th while Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal occupy the 35th spot.