Sreeja Akula surpasses Manika Batra to become India's no.1 paddler

Sreeja Akula has overtaken Manika Batra in the latest world rankings to become India's number one paddler in the women's singles category for the first time ever on Tuesday.

Sreeja achieved a new career-high world ranking of 38 after jumping up one position while Manika who was leading the Indian ranks for the last six years slipped two places to be ranked 39th in the world. 

Sreeja had a tremendous year in 2024 at the World Table Tennis tournament, which included two titles at feeder tournaments, WTT Feeder Corpus Christi and WTT Feeder Beirut II 2024. Meanwhile, Manika whose main focus was on mixed doubles for the last few months hadn't played feeder tournaments and hence lost quite a lot of ranking points.

Both of the Indian players are now focusing on the second smash tournament of the year, the Saudi Smash from 1-11 May in Saudi Arabia. The tournament will offer a lot of ranking points hence both of them will try to make full use of this top-tier tournament.

In men's singles, Sharath is still leading the Indian charts unanimously at 37th position while Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (60) again surpassed Manav Thakkar (61) as India's no.2, closely followed by Harmeet Desai (64).

The fight for two singles spots at the Paris Olympics is getting tighter between the three Indians in the men's singles category with just a difference of four positions between them, whereas Sreeja and Manika are at the forefront in securing their places in the team for singles matches.