Indian men's table tennis team cruises to career-best ninth place in updated ITTF rankings

New Delhi: The Indian men’s table tennis team on Monday achieved its best ever ranking by moving up to the ninth spot in the ITTF rankings. The Indian team comprising World No. 30 G Sathiyan and World No. 36 Sharath Kamal, is tied with 10th-placed Austria on 272 points but is ranked ninth. There are the only two Indians in the top-100. India number three Harmeet Desai is ranked 104. [caption id=“attachment_6844181” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sharath Kamal (L) and G Sathiyan. Reuters[/caption] China are the expected number one in the team rankings, followed by Japan and Germany. India registered their best-ever performance in the ITTF Asian Table Tennis Championships, defeating Hong Kong in the classification match to finish fifth. Earlier in the year, while G Sathiyan had become India’s highest-ranked table tennis player after climbing to the 28th position, Manika Batra cruised to the top-50 in the rankings, becoming the first Indian woman to do so. Manika Batra, however, currently occupies the 61st place in the rankings.