Sathiyan-Manika break into Top 5 world ranking for first time

The Indian table tennis mixed doubles pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra, on Tuesday, reached a career-high world rank of number 5.

Sathiyan and Manika's rise into the top 5 comes after their splendid show at the recently concluded 2022 WTT Contender Slovenia, where the pair finished with the silver medal.

Besides the silver in Slovenia Contender, Sathiyan and Manika had also finished as the runners-up at the 2022 WTT Doha Contender earlier in the year. They had also bagged the WTT Contender in Budapest, Hungary last year.

This is the first-time in history that an Indian mixed doubles pair has been ranked top 5 in the world. The best-ever ranking for an Indian table tennis pair was achieved by the women's doubles duo of Manika Batra and Archana Kamath when they were ranked number 4 in the world earlier this year.