ITTF World Rankings: Achanta Sharath Kamal climbs 10 places, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan breaks into top 40

The Indian table tennis contingent’s good show at the Australian Open and the Korean Open in July helped them have a rise in the new world rankings released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Friday, August 3, 2018.

Achanta Sharath Kamal was one of the two Indians to reach the Round of 16 in men’s singles at the Australian Open. That awarded the former Commonwealth Games gold medallist 1464 points, pushing him up to No. 33 in the rankings chart. With that, he not only regained his India No. 1 status, but is also now just one spot shy of his career-best ranking of 32nd that he had achieved in 2015.

Sathiyan creates record

The other Indian to make it to the pre-quarter-finals of the same Platinum event was Gnanasekaran Sathiyan. The 25-year-old also benefitted from his appearance in the Round of 32 at the Korean Open.

With 1464 and 1239 points from Australia and Korea respectively, Sathiyan climbed to his career-high ranking of 39th, which also made him the youngest Indian ever to break into the top 40.

Harmeet Desai is the only other Indian in the top 100, placed at 99th, after plummeting 20 spots. Anthony Amalraj has dropped to 156 from previous month’s 131st while Sanil Shetty had a massive fall of 57 places to 163rd.

Batra continues to be India No. 1 female paddler

In women’s rankings, Manika Batra continues to be the top ranked Indian and the only one from the country in the top 100. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist too had a decent show at the Australian Open, where she made it to the Round of 32. With 1239 points from that event, and 789 from Korea, having reached the last qualifying round in Incheon, Batra has soared a whopping 24 places to 57th.

Ayhika Mukherjee is the next best Indian on the rankings list and she moved one rung up to 118th. Veteran Mouma Das gained a couple of spots to be 122nd while Madhurika Patkar rose a staggering 28 places to 125th, courtesy of her run to the final qualifying round in Korea.