Indian table tennis is on a high as several players across different categories have made significant improvement in the world rankings. There are three Indian players, including young Harmeet Desai, feature among the top 100 in the men’s rankings, for May 2017.
Harmeet Desai
Although A. Sharath Kamal, dropped one place he is still the top-ranked Indian at No. 54. Soumyajit Ghosh, who recently won the Chile Open title, has made a marginal climb, moving from No. 84 to 83. However, the biggest gainer was Harmeet Desai who broke the three-digit mark moving for 100 to No. 95, which is a big leap. Incidentally, this is the first time ever that three Indians figure in the top 100 world ranking.
Harmeet was rewarded for his impressive performances at the Wuxi Asian Championships, both in team events and in singles.
However, no Indian player figures in the top 100 of the women’s ranking list. Manika Batra, who was ranked world No. 93, has been pushed to No. 103. The other women paddlers have done nothing worthwhile to move up the ladder.
Mumbai girl Diya Chitale also made big strides up the ranking in the girls’ under-15 category. Diya who was ranked No. 26 moved up three places to No. 23. Anusha Kutamble and Vanshika Bhargava have also entered the world ranking list and are placed at 42 and 73.
In Youth Boys, Arjun Ghosh has moved several places to break the 100-mark barrier as he is ranked No. 98 in the world. Manav Thakkar, Abhishek Yadav, Ronit Bhanja, Anirban Ghosh, Siddesh Pande, Jeet Chandra, Birdie Boro and Manush Shah have gained in world rankings but none matching the performance of Arjun Ghosh.
In Youth Girls, Ayhika Mukherjee has improved upon her world rankings by going up two places from No. 37 to No. 35, along with Moumita Datta (No. 147), Seleena Depthi (No. 177) and Diya Chitale (No. 209). Surprisingly, Archana Kamath has lost a few places from No. 56 to be No. 59.
In Junior Boys, Manav Thakkar has made big amends to figure at No. 29 while Manush Shah at 115, identical gain of 10 places for both players.
In Junior Girls, Archana is now among the top 20 in the world, a good two-spot jump, following India’s performance at the Belgium Open in Spa last month. Along with her, Moumita Datta who helped the team win gold, has gained 18 places and is currently at No. 79. Others who have gained from the Spa championships were Selena Deepthi (No. 93) and Diya Chitale (No. 116). The girl from Maharashtra was languishing at No. 147 until the May list was published.
Meanwhile, Chinese players dominate the men’s and women’s rankings lists. Long Ma is the top-ranked men player and is followed by three of his teammates, while Ning Ding heads the women’s rankings, with two other Chinese players ranked second and third.