Sharath jumps to 33rd spot in TT world rankings

Coimbatore: Achanta Sharath Kamal, long-time poster boy of Indian table tennis, upstaged teammate G. Sathiyan to be the highest world ranked Indian at No. 33, it was revealed on Friday.

Thus, Sharath, 36, recaptured his prime position which was his for a long time. He attained his best world ranking No. 32 in May 2015.

After the Suzhou World Championships, where he suffered a hip injury, there saw a dip in his form. Since then he won his record equalling eighth national singles title at Ranchi.

Sathiyan, who is at No.39, has shown a jump of just one spot while Sharath has gained 10 positions.

Harmeet Desai, who was at 79 before the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, is very much in the top 100 but 20 places behind at No. 99. The ITTF's world ranking list released on Friday takes into calculation the two important events that Team India played recently in South Korea and Australia.

With three Indian males in top 100, Manika Batra is the only female paddler who has been showing steady improvement. She has gained 24 places to be at No. 57. She was previously at No. 81.

Among the young women players, Ayhika Mukherjee has been able to maintain her ranking somewhat — she lost just one spot to be at No. 118.

Among U-18 Boys, Manav Thakkar remains in No.3 position while as many as four others - Manush Shah (19), Snehit Suravajjula (26), Jeet Chandra (34) and Parth Virmani (93) — have not only shown considerable improvement but are also in top 100 in world rankings.

Five Indian girls are among the top 100 in world ranking, with Archana Kamath clipping off two positions to be at No. 10.

Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (No. 24), Yashini Sivasankar (38), Prapti Sen (65) and Swastika Ghosh (73) follow Archana.