Indian table tennis players Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah scripted history on Monday by climbing to World No. 2 in the latest International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) men's doubles rankings, making them the highest-ranked Indian players or pair ever in the senior world rankings.
The duo moved up one place from their previous career-best ranking of World No. 3 achieved last week, surpassing the earlier Indian record held by Archana Kamath and Manika Batra, who reached World No. 4 in the women's doubles rankings in 2022.
China's Lin Shidong and Huang Youzheng retained the top spot with 5,160 ranking points, while Thakkar and Shah climbed to second with 3,390 points. France's Alexis and Felix Lebrun, who occupied the No. 2 position last week, slipped to fifth, allowing the Indian pair to move up.
The historic rise reflects the duo's impressive consistency over the past year. Under the guidance of Indian table tennis legend Sharath Kamal, Thakkar and Shah have emerged as one of the world's leading men's doubles combinations through a string of strong performances on the World Table Tennis (WTT) circuit.
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Among their standout results are a semi-final finish at the 2026 Singapore Smash, a runners-up finish at the 2025 WTT Star Contender Foz do Iguaçu, and the title-winning campaign at the 2026 WTT Contender Lagos. These performances earned them valuable ranking points and propelled them into the world's top two.
The achievement comes at a crucial stage for Indian table tennis, with the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, less than three months away. Thakkar and Shah are expected to lead India's men's doubles campaign after narrowly missing a medal at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, where they were beaten in the quarter-finals by South Korea's then World No. 1 pair, Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon.
India also heads into the 2026 Asian Games with strong rankings in the other doubles categories. Diya Chitale and Manush Shah are currently ranked World No. 5 in mixed doubles, while Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade occupy the World No. 10 position in women's doubles.
In the singles rankings, Thakkar remains India's highest-ranked men's player at World No. 38, with Shah close behind at World No. 40. On the women's side, Manika Batra continues to be India's top-ranked singles player at World No. 51, although the former Commonwealth Games champion has been named among the reserves for the upcoming Asian Games.
The latest ITTF rankings highlight India's growing presence on the global table tennis stage and provide a major confidence boost ahead of one of the country's biggest sporting assignments of the year.
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