The Indiantable tennis men's doubles pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shahclimbed to a career high world no. 3 rank in the latest ITTF rankingson Monday.
The duo from Gujarat are now the highest rankedIndian Table Tennis players in history, surpassing the former women'sdoubles duo of Manika Batra and Archana Kamath, who so far held thedistinction of being the highest ranked Indians ever at world no. 4.
“It’s agreat feeling to be ranked world no 3. Our aim is to become world no.1 and win an Olympic medal for the country,” Manav Thakkar who isin Goa and is participating in the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) leagueseason 7 told The Goan.
India isnot a table tennis powerhouse at the world level. The country has wonjust three medals in table tennis at the Asian Games. While inOlympics, it is yet to open its medal account.
Accordingto Manav, leagues such as Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) has helped thesport to grow in a cricket-crazy country like India. The league hasalso helped to discover new talent. UTT, a franchise-based league,similar to what IPL is to cricket, is now in its seventh season andwas started in 2017.
“Ifyou see, before UTT, we were not having any medals in Asian Games.The historic medal which we won during the 2018 Asian Games was thefirst one. Also, after UTT, we have seen maximum number of Indianplayers reach top-100 in world rankings. Even in juniors, likerecently, Divyanshi and all, they did very well in the junior Asianchampionship. So, after UTT has come in, many of the players havedone well in the juniors. Also, they are doing well in the seniors,”Manav said.
Hefurther added, “We have seen results at the Asian Games,Commonwealth Games. Even at the 2024 Paris Olympics, our women's teamfinished 5thwhich was very big for the sport since earlier we never qualified forthe team event. So, of course, the process is there. It's slow, butwe are getting good results. And if we do this continuously, I thinkwe will see more better results in the next 4-5 years. So, I feelIndian table tennis is doing well overall and we are on the righttrack.”
But,for India to do consistently well at the world level, the countrywill need better infrastructure, better training facilities, moreworld-class coaches and more players playing the sport.
“Earlier,may be around 5-10 years ago, you did not see many table tennis hallsin the country. Even now, you will not see a specific table tennishall. But things are getting better. There are around five halls, Ithink, in the whole country. But at the same time, if you see inChina, Japan or France, like I'm currently training in France. Franceis having five national table tennis training centers. Yes, Indiawill be having its first national training center for table tennis.But, at the same time, we need more strength and conditioningtrainers, psychologists to guide the players to be more successful infuture.”
“Thereis no doubt that things are moving in the right direction. But at thesame time, we as players also need to perform well. And UTT is oneplatform, where we all come together, and we are having qualitycoaches, sparring partners. Even if you see the players, the foreignmen and women over here, almost all of them are Olympians. So, weneed this sort of players coming into the country to share theirexperience. Once we meet them, we get a very good experience andexposure. We feel confident of playing at the international level andit gives us a belief that we can defeat those guys internationally, “the world no.3 table tennis player said.
