Indian table tennis star Sreeja Akula continues to climb up the ranking ladder as she reached a career high world No 24 in the women’s singles chart on Tuesday.
Akula jumped up 19 spots in the world rankings after she won the World Table Tennis Contender title in Lagos on Sunday. At the same event, Akula had also paired up with Archana Kamath to claim the women’s doubles title.
Also read: How Sreeja Akula evolved from being a silent paddler to earn a spot in the Olympics
The doubles win saw the duo jump up by 109 spots to move to 44th position in the standings.
The 25-year-old from Hyderabad, who had won two WTT Feeder events earlier this year in Corpus Christi, United States and Beirut, Lebanon, has also become the highest ranked Indian singles player – for the second time – after overtaking Manika Batra, who has now moved down to the 29th position.
Akula has also equalled the world No 24 rank that Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, in men’s singles, had reached as the highest singles ranking ever achieved by an Indian paddler.
In the men’s singles standings, veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal leads as the world No 39, followed by Manav Thakkar on 59 and Sathiyan on 68. Harmeet Desai, meanwhile, is ranked 84.
Desai had paired up with Thakkar in Lagos to win the men’s doubles title, which saw them jump 385 ranking spots to become the world No 45 team. Thakkar however, is ranked No 13 in men’s doubles with Manush Shah.
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