Sathiyan Gnanasekaran jumped three places to 28 and became the highest-ranked Indian men’s table tennis player of all time. Meanwhile, 2018 Gold Coast and Asian Games medalist, Manika Batra, became the first Indian woman to break into the top-50 in the rankings.
Leading Indian paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran on Wednesday rose to a career-high 28 in the world rankings while compatriot Manika Batra became the first woman from the country to break into the top-50.
Onwards and upwards, the march continues ??
Riding on their successful year that was 2018, @sathiyantt and @manikabatra_TT have gone even further in 2019, registering new records in the @ittfworld ranking for the month of January ? pic.twitter.com/WkSMBEgp2O
— Table Tennis India (@TableTennisInd) January 30, 2019
Sathiyan gained three spots to achieve a new career-high ranking while Batra moved up four spots to be 47th.
Veteran Sharath Kamal, who was conferred with the Padma Shri last week, dropped three places to be 33rd in the men’s singles standings.
Indian Table Tennis growing leaps and bounds…
Delighted to be the first Indian woman to break into the top 50 of the @ittfworld rankings. Will continue to work harder than ever… Thank you everyone for your support?? pic.twitter.com/EOyLzXZtCT
— Manika Batra (@manikabatra_TT) January 30, 2019
Indian table tennis experienced a historic 2018 when the men’s team won the country’s first medal at the Asian Games to end a 60-year-wait. Later in the competition held in Jakarta, Sharath and Batra combined to win a second bronze for India to cap off a memorable Asia campaign.
Sathiyan had lost to Sharath Kamal in the national table tennis championship in the medn’s singles final. But he’s been impressive over the last year as he won the Asian Games gold medal in August, upset a few higher-ranked players in the 2018 ITTF World Tour Platinum Austrian Open, where he reached the round of 16, in November.
We caught up with World Rank 2⃣8⃣ @sathiyantt after the latest @ittfworld rankings were out, and here is what he had to say on his amazing feat! ?? pic.twitter.com/JUVFr75jJl
— Table Tennis India (@TableTennisInd) January 30, 2019
His compatriot, Batra, went down in the semi-finals of the Nationals to Archana Kamath. But she, otherwise, has enjoyed a good phase over the last few months. Due to this, she rose the 57th spot in August 2018 to No. 47 now.
Kamal, Batra and Sathiyan apart, the Indian paddlers were ranked outside top-100. Harmeet Desai (107), Amalraj Anthony (154) and Manav Thakkar (170) were ranked below Sathiyan and Kamal.
Among women, Ayhika Mukherjee (114), Madhurika Patkar (121), Mouma Das (156) and Archana Kamath (289) were the Indians who followed Batra in the rankings.
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