Sathiyan-Manika pair reached the finals, made a long jump in the world rankings

India's star table tennis player G Sathiyan and Manika Batra have reached the final of the mixed doubles event of WTT Contenders. The th...

India's star table tennis player G Sathiyan and Manika Batra have reached the final of the mixed doubles event of WTT Contenders. The third seeded Indian pair defeated second seed Hong Kong pair of Wong Chun Ting and Du Hoi Kem in the semi-finals of the ongoing tournament in Doha. Manika and Sathiyan together registered a 13-11, 9-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8 win.

The Indian pair have made a huge jump in the ITTF rankings as well as reaching the finals. Manika and Sathiyan have now jumped three places to seventh in the mixed doubles rankings. This is the career best ranking of both. Apart from this, till date no Indian had achieved such a high ranking before him.

In the women's singles rankings, however, Manika has lost two places and is now at number 48. At the same time, in the men's singles rankings, India's top players G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal have suffered losses. Both have now slipped to number 37 and 41 respectively.

In the men's doubles rankings, however, the Indian pair has made big gains. The pair of G Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal have jumped 10 places and are now at number 21. While in the women's doubles rankings, the pair of Manika and Archana Kamath is at number six.

- KTP Bureau