Sreeja Akula Becomes World #22, Highest-Ranked Indian Singles Paddler

Sreeja Akula, now World No. 22, has emerged as a formidable contender as the highest-ranked Indian singles player in table tennis. The 26-year-old athlete is currently raising stakes with a promising delivery in the women's team event at the Paris Games 20204. In late July, during the Olympics women's singles event, Akula became the second Indian paddler to secure qualification in the Round of 16 after Manika Batra became the first earlier that week. Despite a defeat against the eventual gold medallist World No. 1 Sun Yingsha from China, Akula's terrific performance and composure throughout the Ro16 won the hearts of India.

First Indian With WTT Contender Title

In June 2024, Sreeja Akula became the first Indian paddler to secure a WTT Contender Singles Title at the WTT Contender Lagos 2023. In the final of the WTT Contender tournament, Akula defeated China's Ding Yijie with a stunning score of 4-1. In addition to this, Akula teamed up with Archana Kamath and played against compatriots Diya Chitale and Yahaswini Ghorpade, where they won with an unbeatable score of 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 12-10) and secured the doubles title as well.

Who Is Sreeja Akula?

Paris Olympics 2024-bound table tennis player Sreeja Akula hails from Hyderabad. She is ranked number one in Indian women's singles and is a two-time Indian national champion. She is ranked 38 in the latest ITTF Chart, replacing Manika Batra in April, according to The Hindu. Batra was India's top-ranked player for more than six years. Akula's sister Ravali is a table tennis player too.

Akula was a gold medallist at the 2019 South Asian Games in the women's doubles and women's team events in table tennis. In April 2022, She won both the women's singles and doubles table tennis titles at the 83rd Senior National as well as the Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, at just 23 years old. She was the runner-up in the 2021 edition of the same championships.

Akula was also a part of the Indian team in the  2022 Commonwealth Games and won a gold medal in the mixed doubles event alongside Sharath Kamal.

She won her debut international tournament in Texas at the WTT feeder Corpus Christi in January 2024, defeating USA's Lily Zhang with a score of 3-0 (11-6, 18-17, 11-5). She also won the WTT Feeder Beirut singles title in March and reached the quarterfinal of the WTT Star Contender in Goa. Now, at just 25 years old, Akula has laid a historic milestone by becoming the first Indian paddler to win the WTT Contender Singles title.

Sreeja, Archana Kamath, Harmeet Desai, and Manav Thakkar are part of the squad headed for the 2024 Paris Olympics and will be representing India in the table tennis events. The squad will be led by Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal.