Sreeja Akula jumps to world no.22 in singles, highest-ever for an Indian

Indian paddler Sreeja Akula has jumped up three spots to become world no.22 in singles in the latest World Table Tennis (WTT) rankings, updated on Tuesday. 

This is the highest an Indian paddler has ever been ranked in the WTT rankings, a unique achievement from the 26-year-old. 

Manika Batra too has gone up by three rankings and is now at no.25, thanks to her Olympic campaign.  

The paddler from Delhi became the first Indian table tennis player to qualify for the round of 16 in the Olympics. She eventually lost out to Japan's Miu Hirano in the round of 16 after a very intense match. 

Sreeja Akula has been having a memorable 2024. After a strong start to the year, she entered the Olympics as the highest-ranked Indian paddler.

At the Paris Olympics, she became just the second Indian table tennis player to qualify for the round of 16 after Manika Batra. 

Facing world no.1 Sun Yinghsa in the round of 16, Sreeja fought valiantly and got herself into a good position to take advantage but Sun Yinghsa saved nine match points over two games to ultimately prevail over the Indian. 

The duo are now in action at the women's team event and have already qualified to the quarter-finals, having beaten Romania 3-2 in the round of 16. 

Suthirtha Mukherjee, Yashaswini Ghorpade, and Ahyika Mukherjee are the other Indian women paddlers in the top 100 rankings. 

The men's side saw a drop in ranking amongst all the four Indians inside the top 100. 

Sharath Kamal dropped down by one place and is now ranked no.41, whereas Harmeet Desai, the other Indian paddler who featured in the men's singles at the Paris Olympics, also went down by one ranking to no.87. 

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manav Thakkar are the other Indian male paddlers in the top 100.