S. Fidel R. Snehit has achieved a career-best ranking of No. 24 in the International Table Tennis Federation world junior rankings (under-18), according to a media release here on Tuesday.
The Telangana paddler earned this ranking by virtue of his performance in last month’s World juniors in Italy.
For the 17-year-old Snehit, the first Hyderabad player to win an international title (Jordan Open), this also meant a quantum jump from his previous ranking of No. 64.
Some of the big feats of Snehit include the gold and two silver medals in Jordan in last July and again gold, silver and a bronze in the Slovenia and Indian Open championships.
"It is indeed a great news for me. I never imagined that I will be top 25 in the world when I started off in the calendar year's campaign in June last year," says Snehit, 12th standard student of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Public School (BVBPS).
“I am thankful to my coach Raman Sir (former national champion S. Raman who runs the Raman High Performance TT Centre in Chennai) and my first coach Somnath Gosh at the Global Table Tennis Academy in Hyderabad) and to my School Principal C. Rama Devi madam for all the support,” he said.
Incidentally, Snehit is the second best Indian junior player in the world rankings while Manav Thakkar of Gujarat, who is fully sponsored by the State Government enabling him to take part in eight international tournaments (compared to Snehit’s five), is all set to become World No. 2 in the under-18 category.
"There is every possibility for Snehit to improve the world raking provided he gets the Government support for training and exposure trips,” says the GTTA Secretary B. Shiva Shankar.
The next big assignments for Senhit include the Junior and Youth National and the Inter-State Championships to be held in Durgapur (West Bengal) from January 18.
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