Manav Thakkar becomes first Indian to top ITTF junior standings

The Surat boy, who was previously placed at No. 5, occupied the top spot with 3,455 points, following the good show in Belgrade.

Thakkar ensured a place for himself in the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals to be staged next February in Luxembourg.

Manav Thakkar became the first Indian to occupy the top spot (3,455 points) on the ITTF World Junior Circuit standings, following the conclusion of the tournament in Belgrade.

Thakkar was previously placed at No. 5 position and the rise to the top spot must have given him the boost that he needed after finishing runner-up at the 2017 Serbian Junior and Cadet Open.

The players that follow him in WJC standings include American Kanak Jha at No. 2 (2,950 points), Argentina’s Francisco Sanchi (2,895 points), Frenchman Bastien Rembert (2,880 points) and Chinese Taipei’s Feng Yi-Hsin (2,706 points).

Thus, the boy from Surat ensured a place for himself in the ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals to be staged next February in Luxembourg.

After winning gold at the Egypt Open last week, Selenadeepthi Selvakumar, jumped several places, from being No. 31 to No. 5 (2,350 points) to make things a little difficult for Archana Girish Kamath, who needs to push herself besides having to complete the two-continent criteria.

Archana, who finished runners-up at Belgrade Open, will be participating at next week’s India Junior and Cadet Open at Greater Noida.

She is also slated to compete in the Portugal Open next month to make it to the top 16 of the list.

Incidentally, both Thakkar and Archana Kamath are members of the “ITTF With the Future in Mind” programme for Youth Olympics at Buenos Aires next year. They had attended the recent training camp in Slovenia.