New Delhi: Title-win at the ITTF Challenge Plus Canada Open in Markham catapulted Manav Thakkar to the World No. 1 position in U-21 category. Surat-born Thakkar was No. 3 in November but had dropped to 10th in December’s rankings. However, he saw a massive rise in points to climb to the top, beginning the New Year on 6,780 points.
Similarly, national champion Archana Kamath rose to No. 2 position in the world in U-21 category from No. 4 at the beginning of December 2019. The Karnataka girl’s performance has been steady with some ups and downs in the year gone by. Yet, there are lot of hopes pinned on the 20-year-old to take India to the podium at the 2024 Olympics. G. Sathiyan, who was ranked No. 30 in the world in August 2019, continued to retain his position, according to the latest rankings list.
However, the second top-ranked Indian, A. Sharath Kamal, just improved one spot to be at No. 33 in the latest rankings released on Thursday. Top woman paddler of the country, Manika Batra, has remained at No. 61 in the world which was her position at the end of the last year.
Back in 2018, Thakkar had become the first Indian paddler to make it to the top of the U-18 world rankings. Since then his rise has been meteoric. Within a few months, he earned a call up to the Asian Games squad that won bronze in the men’s team event. Subsequently, at the Asian Championships, Thakkar picked up his first win against a top 50 paddler when he defeated then World No. 34 Kazuhiro Yoshimura of Japan. In October, he competed at the Youth Olympics where he lost in the round of 16 to World No. 5 Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan. (IANS)
