Indian table tennis star Sreeja Akula has become the highest-ever ranked player from the country in singles when the International Table Tennis Federation updated the standings on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad is now the world No 21 in women’s singles, with her latest rise coming on the back of her impressive performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Hours after Manika Batra became the first Indian singles player to reach the third round at the Olympics, Akula beat Singapore’s Zeng Jian to do the same.
Akula has been on an impressive run of form this year. In June, she won the World Table Tennis Contender title in Lagos, Nigeria, which came after she won WTT Feeder events in Corpus Christi, United States and Beirut, Lebanon.
Also read: How Sreeja Akula evolved from being a silent paddler to earn a spot in the Olympics
Thet title in Nigeria had seen her jump up to 24th in the world rankings, which, at the time, was the joint highest standing an Indian had achieved in singles – tied with Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.
Akula, who was competing in her first Olympics, was expected to compete for the Jaipur Patriots team at the upcoming edition of Ultimate Table Tennis, scheduled to start on August 22, but has been forced to withdraw due to a stress fracture.
While Akula has made a jump up in the standings, Batra remains as the world no 25 in women’s singles. Sutirtha Mukherjee (83), Yashaswini Ghorpade (85) and Ayhika Muherjee (90) remain the other Indians ranked in the top 100 in the women’s singles chart.
In men’s singles, veteran Archana Sharath Kamal has moved up to the world No 38 spot, with Manav Thakkar (57), Sathiyan (63) and Harmeet Desai (85) trailing.