Indian women’s table tennis duo of Archana Kamath and Manika Batra attain the highest ever ranking as they aim to take calculated risks

Indian table tennis duo of Manika Batra and Archana Kamath have reached their career high ranking of 4 in the women’s doubles category according to the latest ITTF list of world rankings. This is the highest ever ranking achieved by any Indian, in singles or doubles ever in table tennis.

The Indian duo recently went up two rankings in the latest list. They are now 34 points below Luxembourg’s Xia Nei/Sarah Nutte but are quite far from the spot at the summit, which is occupied by the Chinese duo of Wang Manyu/Sun Yingsha with 4289 points.

Manika and Archana have taken their game to the next level with grueling training and have been extremely consistent in their matches as well. So it is great how their hard work and dedication is being rewarded by a good ranking.

“It feels very nice to see the boost in our rank and we also feel that we can get better and better with time,” Archana Kamath told Bridge in an interaction.

Speaking on her partnership with Manika, Archana added, “I enjoy playing alongside Manika Di and I’m very comfortable too especially since she has an all-round game and is ready to take calculated risks as well”.

She also shares how their aim to be better have always taken them ahead as they work immensely on themselves. “We want to get better quality of shots, especially during the start of the rally, which will definitely help our pairing a lot.” Archana opens up on how both of them aim to better their shots and bring more quality to the table. She feels improving their personal game will eventually help them grow as a duo representing India on the biggest stage.

Archana and Manika recently won the bronze medal in the WTT Star Contender Doha 2022. The Indian duo went down Chinese Taipei’s Li Yu-Jhun and Cheng I-Ching in the semi-finals. They lost 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 and went on to clinch the bronze medal. They also reached the quarterfinals of the  WTT Grand Smash Singapore. The Indian duo were 6th in the rankings back in January but their recent performances meant that they climbed up two places to be placed fourth in the world rankings.