Indian woman to break into the
top 25 in the world women's table
tennis singles rankings.
India's top female table tennis
player Manika Batra became the
first Indian female paddler to break
into the top 25 of the world
women's singles rankings. She
reached a career-best ranking of
24th after her success at the Saudi
Smash last week.
Her achievement mirrors that of
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, who
reached the same rank in 2019, the
highest singles ranking achieved by
an Indian. In 2022, Manika Batra
reached world No. 4 in the
women's doubles rankings with
Archana Kamath – the best by any
Indian table tennis player in any
category.
Not only she secure her status as
India's top-ranked player once
again by overtaking Sreeja Akula,
but at the age of 25, Manika also
etched her name in history as the
first Indian woman to break into
the top 25 singles rankings.
Manika Batra
Manika, the 2018 Commonwealth
Games gold medalist in the
individual and team categories,
jumped 15 places after her race in
Jeddah. Manika defeated world No.
2 and Olympic medalist Wang
Manyu of China in the Saudi Smash
tournament.
Next, she defeated world No. 14
Nina Mittelham to book her place
in the quarterfinals. Manika Batra
became the first Indian singles
table tennis player to reach the
quarterfinals of a WTT Grand
Smash event. Lost in the final
against Hina Hayata of Japan.
In the men's singles rankings,
Achanta Sharath Kamal retained
his position as the highest-ranked
Indian at number 40. In women's
doubles, Sutirtha Mukherjee and
Ayhika Mukherjee are at 13th
place. In mixed doubles, the pair of
Manika and Sathiyan is at 24th
position.
