Sharath Kamal leapfrogs G. Sathiyan in ITTF rankings, occupies 31st spot

Becomes the highest-ranked male Indian table tennis player; Mudit Dani breaks into the top 200.

Sharath Kamal won the Oman Open recently.

A. Sharath Kamal on Thursday leapfrogged compatriot G. Sathiyan in the ITTF men’s singles rankings to become the highest-ranked male Indian table tennis player. Sharath now occupies the 31st position, and Sathiyan is 32nd.

Riding on his performance in the Oman Open last month, veteran Sharath took a leap of seven spots. “Some positive news, amidst all the negativity currently. Feels great actually. Just the news I needed while I find myself away from the game during this lockdown,” Sharath said.

India’s Mudit Dani also made notable progress in the rankings. He broke into the top-200 for the first time in his career. After some good performances in recent tourneys, Dani jumped nine places to occupy the 200th position. Harmeet Desai (72), Anthony Amalraj (100) and Manav Thakkar (139) are the other Indian paddlers to have positioned themselves in the top 200.

95th spot for Sutirtha

In the senior women’s rankings, Manika Batra is in the 63rd position, while Sutirtha Mukherjee broke into the top 100, occupying the 95th spot.

The ITTF rankings will now be frozen until tournaments begin again. ITTF has already suspended all its events until June 30 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.