In women's singles table tennis, Sreeja Akula has clinched an incredible accomplishment by defeating Manika Batra to grab the No. 1 rank in India. She moved up to a career-high rank of 38 in the recent tournament of the ITTF Chart, while Manika dropped two spots to 39. She excels in topspin forehead, pimple rubber backhand shots, and surprises with unexpected angles and spins, making her game challenging for opponents to predict her next move.
Sreeja performed phenomenally this year, winning the WTT Feeder Corpus Christi in January and the WTT Feeder in Beirut in March. She also grabbed the spot in the Goa WTT Star Contender quarterfinals.
Additionally, Sreeja and veteran player Sharath Kamal won the gold medal in mixed doubles at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Yashaswini Ghorpade and Archana Kamath held their respective ranks of 99th and 100th in the rankings. Meanwhile, G Sathiyan and Manav Thakar have switched their positions at 60th and 61st, respectively whereas Sharath Kamal is still the top-ranked male player at 37th. The national champion, Harmeet Desai currently holds the 64th position.
India has already qualified for the team events at the Paris Olympics 2024 and based on the world rankings, the Table Tennis Federation of India will select the two singles entries for men's and women's categories.
