ITTF Rankings: Sharath Kamal Achanta back to India No. 1 position

Indian table tennis legend Sharath Kamal Achanta’s masterful performances at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the World Team Table Tennis Championships have triggered a rise of five places in the latest world rankings released by the ITTF on Monday, May 7, 2018. The 35-year-old is now placed at 43rd, thus usurping Sathiyan Gnanasekaran from the India No. 1 spot. The latter continues to remain static at 46th.

This is the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist paddler’s highest ranking since August, 2015 when he was 41st.

The soon-to-be-36 Achanta’s career revival has been happening for the past couple of months. He made it to the Round of 16 at the Qatar Open in March, which fetched him 1464 points. At the Commonwealth Games last month, he received the bronze medal in individual category, apart from helping India clinch the men’s team gold medal.

He could add another 480 points to his tally thanks to his individual display. He then followed it up with another dazzling demonstration at the World Championships in Halmstad just last week. Sharath Kamal played a key role in taking India to the 13th position, grabbing 10 wins out of 13 matches along the way. It gave him a whopping 2220 points, taking him back inside the top 45 in the world.

Since the best eight results in the past 12 months for a player is considered, his recent few good results have pushed him up in the rankings ladder.

Beyond the top 50, Harmeet Desai is placed at 76th, Soumyajit Ghosh has plummeted to 95th and Sanil Shetty is 98th, rounding off the top 100. Amalraj Anthony has slipped to 103rd.

In the women’s section, Manika Batra’s powerful show in Gold Coast could not help move her ranking in the upward direction. The 22-year-old fell 11 places to 69th even though she earned 600 points for her gold medal and 610 points for her outing at the World Team Table Tennis Championships. The Delhi girl is the only player in the top 100.

Kolkata’s Mouma Das too has plunged quite a few places and is now at 117th. Ayhika Mukherjee is 127th and Madhurika Patkar is 133rd.