Paddler Manav becomes World No. 1 in U-21 category

G. Sathiyan, who was ranked World No. 30 in August 2019, continued to retain his position, according to the list released.

However, the second top-ranked Indian A. Sharath Kamal just improved to be at No. 33 in the latest ranking list. He was No. 34 in December 2019.

Top woman paddler of the country, Manika Batra, has remained at No. 61 in the world which was the position at the end of last year.

But title-win at the ITTF Challenge Plus Canada Open in Markham catapulted Manav Thakkar to the World No. 1 position in Under-21 category. The Surat-born Thakkar was No. 3 in November but had dropped to 10th in December's rankings. However, he saw a massive rise in points and climbed to the top, beginning the new year on 6,780 points.

At the year-end event last month, the 19-year-old became the first Indian since 2017 to win a Under-21 men's singles title in Canada when he beat Argentina's Martin Bentancor 11-3, 11-5, 11-6 in the final.

Back in 2018, Thakkar had become the first Indian table tennis player to make it to the top of the U-18 world rankings. Since then his rise has been meteoric. Within a few months, he earned a call up to the Asian Games squad that won bronze in the men's team event.

Subsequently, at the Asian Championships, Manav picked up his first win against a top 50 paddler when he defeated then World No. 34 Kazuhiro Yoshimura of Japan. In October, he competed at the Youth Olympics where he lost in the round of 16 to World No. 5 Tomokazu Harimoto.

( With inputs from IANS )