India’s Manav Vikash Thakkar climbed up the ranking to become the new leader in the ITTF World Junior Circuit Standings. He is now on the top spot with 3,455 points in the race to reach the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals to be staged next February in Luxembourg., according to the International Table Tennis Federation.
He reached the summit after his runner-up performance at the Serbian Junior and Cadet Open in Belgrade on Sunday. He was previously No 5 in the standings. The other names on the list are Kanak Jha at No 2 (2,950 points), followed by Argentina’s Francisco Sanchi (2,895 points), Frenchman Bastien Rembert (2,880 points) and Chinese Taipei’s Feng Yi-Hsin (2,706 points).
Another India who has increased his chance of playing there is Manush Utpalbai Shah who reached the semi-final stage of the Junior Boys’ Singles event in Belgrade. He took a massive leap from No 40 to No 14 (1,492 points).
After the ongoing 2017 Egypt Junior and Cadet Open, the top nine names in the standings will all have played in two continents and will thus have met the basic criteria to compete in the Finals. A total of 16 players will be part of the competition.
In the ITTF World Junior Girls’ Standings, India’s Archana Girish Kamath, also a runner-up at Belgrade, moved a long way from No 45 to No 16 (1,625 points.) While she has not completed the two continent criteria as yet, she will play in the upcoming India Junior and Cadet Open to get it done.
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