Hyderabad: Achantha Sharath Kamal made a massive improvement in the latest ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) rankings and became India's No. 1 paddler on Tuesday. He achieved 34th rank in the recently released list taking a massive leap of 54 places.
The Indian veteran athlete improved his rankings thanks to his recent exploits in the Singapore Smash where he reached the quarterfinals. He started the competition as a qualifier but made it to the round of 8 by outplaying World No. 13 Darko Jorgic and World No. 22 Omar Assar on his way. Thanks to his sensational performance, he carved a huge improvement in the latest rankings. The improvement in the rankings will help Sharath ease his way towards the road to the Paris Olympics.
Harmeet Desai (65) and Manav Thakkar (74th) are the other two Indian players in the list of top 100 paddlers. In women's singles, Manika Batra (38th) is the top-ranked Indian despite slipping down by two spots. Sreeja Akula has bettered her rankings by three places moving to 47th position while Yashaswini Ghorpade is ranked 100th as a result of climbing one place.
Sharath will be eyeing for a direct spot in the Paris Olympics with his performance in the upcoming competitions. He recently played a key role in India's campaign in the World Table Tennis Championship.
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