The best Indian table tennis matches of 2024

2024 has been a year to savour for Indian table tennis.

The sport, which has seen constant development over the years, hit a new high this year, with multiple accolades coming the way of Indian paddlers, both individually and as a team. 

The Indian paddlers won 10 WTT Feeder titles, three WTT contender titles, one WTT Youth Star Contender title, and as many as 34 WTT Youth Contender titles in the last twelve months, in what has been a truly remarkable year. 

In addition to this, 10 Indian singles stars are placed inside the top-100 in the world as per the recent rankings, with stalwarts Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula ranked 25th and 22nd respectively.

What's more, around 18 Indian doubles pair are also ranked inside the top-100 in the rankings.

Besides this, for the first time ever, both the Indian men's and women's teams qualified for the Olympics. And the icing on the cake was the fact that both teams also bagged a bronze medal apiece at the 2024 Asian Table Tennis Championships.

With a lot of options to choose from, we list down the top five Indian table tennis matches of the year. 

#5: Manika Batra's v/s Bernadette Szocs, WTT Champions Montpellier 2024 

The poster-girl of Indian table tennis had the number over Romania's Bernadette Szocs this year, beating her on more than one occasion.

After defeating her at the Women's team event of the Paris Olympics, the two once again faced each other at the round of 16 at the WTT Champions event at Montpellier, France. 

And this time as well, the Indian shone through, winning the match 3-1 (11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 11-9). 

Szocs was put to the test by Batra in this outing, and despite losing the second game, Batra stormed back into the match and took the third match 13-11 before wrapping things up in the fourth game. 

With that win, Batra also managed to nudge ahead in the head-to-head battle record against Szocs, which the Indian now leads 6-5.

#4: Manika Batra's v/s against Wang Manyu, Saudi Smash 2024

Batra was at her best during the 2024 Saudi Smash, reaching the quarter-finals after beating a horde of big names along the way. But the biggest scalp of them all was Wang Manyu, the world no.2 ranked Chinese paddler.

Thanks to her stellar performances at the Saudi Smash, Batra entered the top-30 world ranking for the first time in her career, an achievement she would eventually better in the coming months, reaching as high as 25th in the world rankings.

Her quarter-final appearance at the Saudi Smash also made her the first Indian women's singles paddler to feature in the final eight of a Grand Smash event, setting the stage for what was a memorable year for the 29-year-old.

#3: Sreeja Akula's v/s Sun Yingsha, Paris Olympics 2024

Sreeja Akula was arguably India's best player in 2024 with a flurry of good performances. 

She became the first Indian to win a WTT Contender title, winning the WTT Lagos earlier this year.  She also reached a career high world ranking of 21 in August. 

But none of her performances stood up to her match against Sun Yingsha, the world No. 1, at the Paris Olympics. 

Akula, in game one, had a four-game point advantage, which the Chinese wiped out in a remarkable fashion, winning it 12-10 after being down 6-10. 

The script followed in the second game as well, this time Akula holding a five game point advantage only for Sun to fight back yet again. 

There was nothing Akula did wrong.

Instead, it was purely down to the brilliance of Sun, the best woman paddler in the world, who proved that her ranking was indeed a reflection of her caliber.

Despite the heart breaking defeat, Akula in that match showed that she is amongst the very best in the world.

If she keeps up her work ethic, she will soon find herself amongst the top, maybe even inside the top-15 or top -10 in the rankings. 

#2: Sharath Kamal's v/s against Omar Assar, Singapore Smash 2024

The ageless Achanta Sharath Kamal came into 2024 under a lot of pressure, having not performed up to the expectations for quite a few months in the previous year.

He needed a few good performances to boost his form ahead of the Paris Olympics, which was slated to be his fifth and final Olympic appearance, and the veteran paddler hit top form at the Singapore Smash. 

Coming into the event through the qualifying rounds, Sharath, then ranked 88th in the world, first defeated world no.13 Darko Jorgic in the second round, and was up against Omar Assar, then world no. 22, in the pre-quarterfinals. 

Sharath was at his imperious best on that day, just as he was in the previous round, and simply gave Assar no chance to breathe. 

He stormed through the first game in no time, winning 11-4, and although Omar put up a better show in the second game, Sharath was in sublime touch, winning it 11-8 to take a 2-0 lead.

The third game was contested evenly, with Sharath trailing 4-8 at one point but eventually ended up winning it 12-10 and progressed to the quarter-finals, becoming the first Indian men's singles player to qualify to the quarter-finals of a Grand Smash event. 

It was after this tournament that Sharath's ranking skyrocketed, eventually propelling him to the Paris Olympics. 

#1: India vs China, World Team Table Tennis Championships 2024

When the India women's team lined up against China in the 2024 World Team Table Tennis Championships, it was widely expected that China would coast through to a routine win.

But what transpired was something no one saw coming.

China had to fight for their lives to earn a hard-fought 3-2 win, with India putting up a stellar fight.

Ayhika Mukherjee went up first against world No 1 Sun, and shocked the world by beating the Chinese and handing India an unexpected lead.

Although China pulled things back in the next game with Batra facing a loss, Akula once again put India in front as she beat Wang Yidi in the third match of the tie.

Even with India holding the advantage, China fought back and eventually won the tie 3-2, winning the last two matches.

Despite the loss, India on that day announced that they were no pushovers.

Instead, they emerged as world-beaters and a force to reckon with in the table tennis world.