Veteran table tennis player Sharath Kamal became the leading Indian in the ITTF world rankings, beating compatriot Ji Sathiyan on Thursday, jumping seven places to reach 31st. Sharath acquired the title at the Oman Open last month, his first ITTF title in the last 10 years. Due to this, he was able to improve the ranking. Sharath said, 'This is good news in the negativity that has spread this time due to the COVID-19 epidemic. I'm liking it. I needed similar news during this lockdown while away from the game.
At the same time, his young partner Sathiyan slipped to 32nd position. Fast forward Mudit Dani also made good progress in the rankings, making it to the 200th place.
Harmeet Desai is ranked 72nd, Anthony Amalraj 100th, and Manav Thakkar 139th. Manika Batra is ranked 63 in the women's rankings, while Surtitha Mukherjee managed to enter the top 100 for the first time, gaining 14 places to reach 95th. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has closed the rankings until the start of the competitions. All tournaments are postponed till June 30 due to COVID-19.
