Sharath, Sathiyan and Manika achieve career-best WR

 

 

New Delhi, October 2: Achanta Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Manika Batra achieved their career-best world rankings, according to the latest chart released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday.

 

The 36-year-old Sharath, who helped India claim historic team bronze at the Asian Games in Jakarta and a mixed bronze, jumped four places to grab the World No. 31 spot. Prior to this his career best ranking was 32, achieved in May 2015 after the Suzhou World Championships.

 

Sharath’s had reached world No. 33 after the Team India gold at the Commonwealth Games and a silver and bronze in men’s doubles and singles. The one place jump now is the reflection of the Asiad performances—he lost in singles in the pre-quarterfinals.

 

Sathiyan, too, marched ahead to be at World No. 36 spot from No. 39. He had won three medals in the Commonwealth Games and a bronze (men team event) in the Asian Games.

 

Manika, who became the first Indian woman to win a singles gold at Commonwealth Games, was rewarded for her consistent showing as she moved up to World No. 55, climbing one rung up the order.

 

The 23-year-old from Delhi had four medals—two gold, one silver and a bronze—at the Commonwealth Games and followed them up with a historic bronze in mixed doubles event, partnering with Sharath, at the Asian Games.

 

Other than these three paddlers, the rest of Indian male players lag far behind and are in the 100 plus brackets, including Harmeet Desai (103), A. Amalraj (147), Sanil Shetty (162). The youth icon, Manav Thakkar, is just behind them at No. 218.

 

Among women, Mouma is the second best Indian (110) while Madhurika Patkar (123), Ayhika Mukherjee (166) while Sreeja Akula (274), another youth paddler, follow her.

 

In under-18 Boys, Manav is at No. 4—he lost a place in the current ranking chart—with Manush Shah neither losing nor gaining (24) even as SFR Snehit (48) dropped six places form his previous No. 42. However, Jeet Chandra has jumped a place (56) from his previous No. 57.

 

ARCHANA, PAYAS GAIN

 

Archana Kamath is the top-ranked Indian in the world at No. 9, a gain of one spot while Selena Selvakumar (30) and Swastika Ghosh (48), both improving slightly as Archana did. If at all there is a big jump, credit goes to Prapti Sen, who made a big leap to be at No. 70 from No. 87. She figures as the sixth Indian on the list behind Yashini Sivasankar at No. 63—she dropped down from No. 59.

 

In under-15 Boys, Payas Jain has gained two places (No. 15) from his previous best of No. 17. But UP’s Divyansh Srivastava just made a huge leap to come the top 100 brackets. He is at world No. 98 and his previous best was 289. Similarly, Vishwa Deenadayalan has moved up to No. 142, from 554!

 

But Diya Chitale, who was world No. 15 in under-15 Girls, lost eight places to take the No. 23 spot. However, Trisha Gogoi (33) from Assam and Munmun Kundu (34) from West Bengal have shown improvement, jumping two places apiece, from their previous best positions. Tamil Nadu’s Kavyashree Baskar has leaped to No. 101 from her previous best of 202.

 

Karnataka’s Anargaya Manjunath (No. 133) and Delhi’s Lakshita Narang (No. 176) have come into the world ranking reckoning for the first time.