India's Payas Jain sits at second position in ITTF U-17 table tennis world rankings

New Delhi: Indian paddler Payas Jain is sitting pretty at the second spot in the newly-introduced ITTF U-17 world rankings. According to the latest ITTF rankings, released on Tuesday, Payas is 268 ranking points behind the table-topper Yuanyu Chen from China, at 2612, and way ahead of the third-placed Puerto Rican, Angel Naranjo (2229). For the Delhi boy, the progress must have come as a shot in the arm. The 17-year-old, who finished with a silver medal in the Asian Cadet and Junior Championship at Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) in September 2019, went down to Yuanyu Chen in the final. Before Payas, Manav Thakkar had become World No 2 in the under-18 section in 2018. The international federation has brought in this new ranking to plug the gap of four years between Cadets (under-15) and Youth (under-19) and help the in-between players a chance to monitor their gradual progress. The ITTF has, thus, increased the age to 19 for the junior paddlers. In the Under-15 Girls, Suhana Saini is ranked No 7 in the world, and that is quite some progress for the Haryana girl. The sub-junior paddler finished runner-up in February nationals, held at Indore. Prayesh Raj Suresh is ranked No 6 in the U-15 Boys and the Tamil Nadu boy had helped himself to the Sub-Junior Boys title at Indore. In the under-19 Girls category, National Junior champion Swastika Ghosh of Maharashtra is the top-ranked Indian in the world at No 9.