Indian women in sports have been earning global recognition as they break barriers to script new records. In one such significant feat, five Indian paddlers grabbed a spot in the International Table Tennis Federation's (ITTF) top 100 women's singles list on June 26, for the first time in history. In even impressive news, two of these pioneering athletes have made it to the top 30, continuing to pose tough challenges to their international counterparts.
Who Are Top 5 Players Of India
Sreeja Akula
Sreeja Akula's consistently stunning performances have secured her the well-deserved title of India's #1 table tennis champion. The Hyderabad-native athlete has been ranked #24 on the latest ITTF index. Akula, 25 years old, jumped 19 spots to reach the highest ranking in her career.
Earlier this week, the two-time national champion achieved another milestone as she became the first Indian paddler to win a World Table Tennis Contender Singles Title at the WTT Contender Lagos 2023. She also won the doubles title, becoming the first Indian to win two titles at a WTT event.
Manika Batra
India's #2 table tennis player is Olympian Manika Batra, who has been ranked 29 on the ITTF list. The 29-year-old will lead the national women's squad at the highly anticipated Paris Games from July 2024. Batra made history in May 2024 as the first Indian woman to make it to the top 25 paddlers.
Batra has received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Awards, India's highest sporting honours. She first qualified for the Olympics at the 2016 Rio Games. She has won two gold medals in the Commonwealth Games and three golds in the South Asian Games, among other laurels.
Sutirtha Mukherjee
Sutirtha Mukherjee has been ranked World #75, a whopping 50 places higher than her previous rank. Like Akula, she also secured the highest ITTF rank in her career. At the WTT Contender Lagos, the 28-year-old stunned World No. 8 Shin Yu-bin from South Korea 3-2.
Mukherjee, a West Bengal native national champion, was part of the gold-winning Commonwealth Games Indian women's team. She also played in the 2020 Summer Olympics (Tokyo) and the 2022 Asian Games in China, where she and Ayhika Mukherjee won the bronze in women's doubles.
Yashaswini Ghorpade
Yashaswini Ghorpade was positioned at #86 on the ITTF index. Her ranking has shot up by 13 places from May 2024. The young paddler from Karnataka started her table tennis career when she was eight years old at an event in Mysuru over a decade ago, and recently graduated from the U-19 squad.
Ayhika Mukherjee
Ayhika Mukherjee from West Bengal also attained her career's highest world ranking as she secured #92 on the ITTF index. She has gone up by 48 places in the women's singles global ranking. Mukherjee will accompany the Paris Olympics contingent as an alternate, according to reports.
The 25-year-old paddler was honoured with an Arjuna Award in 2023. She and Sutirtha defeated the Chinese Champions Chen Meng and Wang Yidi in the Asian Games 2022 doubles quarter-finals. She also handed a defeat to World #1 from China, Sun Yingsha, in the WTT Team Championships 2022.
The table tennis competition at the Paris Olympics 2024 is scheduled to begin on July 27, according to reports. This will be followed by the team events starting on August 5. The Indian women’s team consists of Sreeja Akula, Manika Batra, Archana Kamath and Ayihka Mukherjee (reserve).
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