Manika Batra becomes the first Indian female paddler to make it to the top 25 in singles rankings

Indian ace table tennis player Manika Batra secured her career-best women’s singles ranking of World No. 24 . The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) released the latest leaderboard on Tuesday, May 14.

Notably, this is the first time an Indian female paddler made the cut into the top 25 rankings in the singles category. Furthermore, she equaled the World No. 24 rank achieved by Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in 2019 - the best among any Indian paddler in the singles.

Before the start of the Saudi Smash 2024, Batra was ranked 38th. However, her exceptional performance in the campaign helped her to propel 15 spots up to make it to the 24th position in the updated world rankings.

Manika Batra put up an impressive performance in Saudi Smash

During the competition held in Jeddah, Batra bagged a win over World No. 2 paddler Wang Manyu from China before securing a win over World No. 14 Nina Mittelham from Germany to advance to the quarterfinals. Interestingly, Wang Manyu slipped one spot down in the rankings after her loss over Batra.

However, Manika Batra’s impressive run at Saudi Smash came to an end with a loss against World No. 5 Hina Hayata in the quarterfinals on May 9.

Nevertheless, the 28-year-old’s memorable run in the campaign helped her to regain the India no 1 spot from Sreeja Akula, who descended three places to the 41st rank.

Moving forward, in the men’s singles rankings, seasoned campaigner Achanta Sharath Kamal continues to lead the Indians despite slipping three spots to the 40th rank.

On the other hand, Manav Thakkar at 62nd rank is India’s second highest-ranked player in the men’s singles division, followed by Harmeet Desai at 63 while Sathiyan has glided down to the 68th rank.

Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah descended three spots to make it to 15th in the men’s doubles rankings, but Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee, who secured a bronze medal at the Asian Games in 2023, climbed up to 13th rank in the women’s doubles charts.

Interestingly, Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekara, who once dominated the mixed doubles rankings at the fifth spot, have now slipped to the 24th rank.