"A potent boost to my Olympics preparations": TT star Manika on entering top 25 in ITTF rankings

New Delhi [India], May 14 : Indian table tennis star Manika Batra, who became the first singles player from her country to break into the top 25 of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings, said that the accomplishment serves as a huge boost for her ahead of 2024 Paris Olympics and she is committed to self-improvement as a player.

Indian table tennis star Manika Batra achieved a career-high world number 24 in the latest International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings issued on Tuesday. This is the first time ever that an Indian paddler has broken into the top 25 in singles rankings, as per Olympics.com.

Manika said in a statement after her accomplishment, "It is indeed a very proud moment for me. To break into the top 25 and achieve my career-best ranking just months before the Olympic games is a very potent boost to my preparations. I am truly honoured to have achieved this feat and it is incredibly fulfilling to see all my hard work and efforts pay off."

"As I look ahead to Paris 2024, I am motivated more than ever to continue this performance and move upwards in the ranking to make my country proud. I really want to thank god for the blessings that helped me to give my best performance at the highest level. Improvement is a continuous process and I am committed to it," she added.

Manika's standing in global table tennis improved massively following an impressive Saudi Smash tournament recently, as she became the first Indian singles player to reach the quarterfinals of a World Table Tennis Grand Smash event. In her run, she defeated world number two Wang Manyu of China in the round of 32 and world number 14 Nina Mittelham of Germany in the pre-quarterfinals before succumbing to world number five Hina Hayata from Japan in her final eight clash.

Manika also regained her top spot among women paddlers in India, which she had lost just a month back to Sreeja Akula, for the first time ever in six years.

Sreeja has dropped down to three places in global rankings and is currently at number 41.

In 2022, Manika Batra rose to world number four in the women's doubles category along with Archana Kamath - the best by any Indian table tennis player in any category.

Men's table tennis veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal reigns supreme among Indian players despite sliding down three places to world number 40. Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai, ranked at world number 62 and 63 respectively, are his closest rivals.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran has registered a drop of five places to world number 68.

Asian Games bronze medalist pair of Suthirtha and Ayhika Mukherjee have moved up to the 13th spot in women's doubles while the duo of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah dropped down three places to 15th in men's doubles rankings.

Manika and Sathiyan, once among the top five in the mixed doubles category worldwide, have slid down world No. 24. However, Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade secured a massive jump of 693 spots to reach world No. 38 rank.

Harmeet and Yashaswini had a great Saudi Smash campaign as well, reaching the quarterfinals by first beating the world number 19 pair Paulina Vega and Nicolas Burgos of Chile, then the world number six team of Alvaro Robles and Maria Xiao of Spain. In the final eight clash, they were outdone by the world's number one pair of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha of China.

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