Manika Batra asciende en el ranking de tenis de mesa, todavía ningún indio puede clasificarse para las finales de la WTT

After a decent performance in the WTT Champions in Montpellier, India’s singles paddler Manika Batra has climbed up four places in the latest ITTF Rankings. Now, the multiple CWG-medalist has gone to the 26th position in women’s singles list, that is headed by China’s Sun Yingsha. Meanwhile, Sreeja Akula remains to be India’s best placed player at 25th position.

Coming back to Manika, she had become the first ever Indian to reach the quarters of a WTT Champions event, surprising many. She started her campaign with 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 12-10) victory over USA’s Lily Zhang. Following that, she had another great match vs World No.14 Bernadette Szocs of Romania and beat her 3-1 (11-9 6-11 13-11 11-9).

But then, her campaign was cut short by world no. 21 Qian Tianyi of China 0-3 (8-11, 8-11, 10-12). But nonetheless, she achieved the unprecedented for India. As far as the men’s singles section is concerned, veteran Sharath Kamal is still the best at World No. 40. He is followed by Manav Thakkar at 62, and G Sathiyan at 73.

In the women’s doubles, that is a non-Olympic category, Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee are placed at No. 14, while in the men’s doubles, it is Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah, who are ranked 13th. Whereas, in mixed doubles, Diya Chitale and Manush Shah are the best-placed Indian team at World No. 14.

Having said that, none of the Indian players have managed to make it to the WTT Finals, that is scheduled to take place in Fukuoka, Japan, from November 19. The tournament carries a prize money of USD 700,000.