Sathiyan Gnanasekaran-Manika Batra achieve career-best ranking of World No. 7 in mixed doubles 

Indian table tennis players Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra achieved a career-best ranking of World No. 7 in mixed doubles. The Indian mixed doubles pair have been one of the most consistent teams over the last few years.

The pair bettered their previous ranking of World No. 10. This is the first time an Indian mixed doubles pair have made it to the top seven in the world.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran took to social media to announce the change in the rankings.

You can view his post below:

Sathiyan Manika advance to semi-finals

Sathiyan and Manika stormed into the semi-finals of the ongoing WTT Contender in Doha on Tuesday. The Indian mixed-doubles pair beat Christina Kallberg and Kristian Karlsson of Sweden 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8) in the quarter-finals.

They will meet Hong Kong's Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem in the semi-finals.

Sathiyan and Manika started well and pocketed the first game 11-7 with ease. However, the Swedish pair restored parity when they bounced back in the second to win the game 9-11.

The Indian pair then won the all-important third game 11-9 and took the momentum into the next game. Without giving much of a chance to the Sweden paddlers, the Indians closed the match with a sublime 11-8 win in the fourth game.

Disappointment for Indian paddlers

Manika, however, lost in the opening round in the women's singles category, losing her match to China's Fan Siqi 0-3 (7-11, 5-11, 6-11).

Manika couldn't taste success in the women's doubles category either, partnering Archana Kamath, with the pair losing their quarter-final match. The Indian pair proved to be no match for the prowess of Taipei's Chen Szu-Yu and Huang Yi-Hua 0-3 (5-11, 9-11, 6-11).

After losing the opening game on a whimper, both Manika and Archana tried to stage a comeback but fell short in the second game to lose at 9-11. However, the Taipei players were a notch above in the decisive third game and pulled off a win with ease at 6-11.

In the men's singles, Achanta Sharath Kamal moved to the round-of-16 after winning his first-round match over Qatar's Fahed Almughhane 3-0 (11-7, 15-13, 11-8).

However, it was curtains for Sathiyan who went down to China's Yuan Licen 0-3 (5-11, 6-11, 12-14) in the first round.