Manika Batra-G Sathiyan achieve record-breaking feat in Indian table tennis history

Indian paddlers Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra achieved major milestones after their recent run at the WTT Contender event in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. As per the latest world rankings released, the Indian table tennis pair have seen their positions rise in the mixed doubles category following their performance in Slovenia. Gnanasekaran and Batra attained their best-ever world ranking in the mixed doubles category as they entered the top five in world rankings.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran celebrates career-best ranking in mixed doubles

Taking to his official Twitter handle Sathiyan Gnanasekaran celebrated his record-breaking feat alongside his mixed doubles partner Manika Batra. Indian table tennis pair climbed one spot to Number 5 in the mixed doubled rankings after the latest ITTF World Ranking. It is also the highest-ever mixed doubles pair ranking achieved by an Indian table tennis duo. Expressing his delight regarding such a major achievement Gnanasekaran wrote that this is a step towards reaching the top and also winning the Olympic medal.

Individually Sathiyan and Batra are the highest-ranked table tennis players in the country. While Sathiyan is ranked 39th in men’s singles and Batra is 44th in women’s singles in the country.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra settle for silver at WTT Contender Doha 2022

The WTT Contender event in Nova Gorica, Slovenia event witnessed Team India ending their campaign with one medal. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra settled for the silver, after losing the final of the mixed doubles. The Indian duo lost the battle against Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin of Korea. The Indians lost the match 11-7, 11-7, 11-5. Besides winning the silver in Slovenia Contender, Sathiyan and Manika had an impressive run at Budapest and Doha.

The Indian pair finished as the runners-up at the 2022 WTT Doha Contender earlier in the year. They also went onto the WTT Contender in Budapest, Hungary last year. 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. Coming to other results in the women’s doubles semifinal, Manika and Archana Kamath went down 1-3 (4-11, 11-8, 6-11, 9-11) against Doo Hoi Kem and Zhu Chengzhu of Hong Kong, China.