Indian paddlers improve rankings, Sathiyan earns career-best spot

As per the latest rankings of the International Table Tennis Association (ITTF), Indian paddlers made a huge leap. G. Sathiyan secured a career-best ranking of 46 while experienced campaigner Sharath Kamal jumped 22 places and is currently at the 48^th spot in the rankings. Sathiyan has been in red-hot form for the past year and is rightfully the leading singles player in our country. Among his recent success was the gold in the ITTF challenge ' Spanish Open in November 2017 following which he reached the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open. With the Commonwealth Games about to start, the25-year-old is focused on giving his best in Gold Coast. 'I'm really happy to hit my highest ever ranking. It's a good step and now I am aiming for Top 20 this year. But my prime focus will be the CWG and I guess this ranking will pump me up more to deliver my best. I think the best is yet to come,' said Sathiyan.

Also read: Commonwealth Games 2018: Squad for Table Tennis announced Sharath Kamal has been India's best Table Tennis player for the last decade and is also a gold medal winner in the 2006 edition which was also held in Australia. Hopefully, the Chennai-born re-creates the memories this time around. This is going to be Sharath's final appearance in the Commonwealth Games! In an interview with PTI, Sharath Kamal expressed his views about India's chances in the upcoming Commonwealth Games. He said, "I feel we have a good chance in all four categories (singles, team, doubles and mixed doubles). It is easily the strongest men's squad we have fielded at the Commonwealth Games." Other Indian paddlers who are ranked in the top 100 are Soumyajit Ghosh (70), Harmeet Desai (74), Anthony Amalraj (83) and Sanil Shetty (84). Among the women, Manika Batra is still the top-ranked Indian player sitting on the 58^th place, meanwhile, Mouma Das slipped 17 places and is now ranked 88^th.