Archana-Manika, a winning combo

Bengaluru’s Archana Kamath and Delhi’s Manika Batra who came together in 2018, recently became the first Indian women’s pair to break into the top-5 table tennis ranking in the world.

A bronze medal effort at the WTT Star Contender in Doha last month helped the Indians jump two places to a career-high world No. 4 in the latest women’s doubles rankings. “We began our journey as a doubles pair in 2018 and played a few more events in 2019 before the pandemic-induced break. We got together again to compete in Slovenia in November last year when we were ranked 36 in the world,” said 21-year-old Archana. In Slovenia, they beat the 23rd-ranked Melanie Diaz and Adriana Diaz from Puerto Rico 11-3, 11-8, 12-10 to clinch the title in WTT Contender Lasko.

Rating the pairs from Chinese Taipei, Singapore and China as their biggest competition currently, Archana told DH that their individual playing styles and positive attitude towards the game have helped them complement each other and make a steady progress in the ranking ladder.

“The mindset that Manika di brings with her fearless approach besides her readiness to take calculated risks, allows me to play a lot more freely because I’m generally an aggressive player,” she explained.

With both Manika, a two-time Olympian, and Archana’s primary focus on singles, their recent spoils as a doubles team make it all the more special.

Archana, in fact, feels the success in doubles has helped her improve as a singles player.

“The exposure of facing different opponents with varied styles of play enhances my skill set. The other aspect is how much I get to learn from my experienced partner. Doing well against the top players in the world gives me a lot of confidence which I hope to translate into my singles career as well.”

Archana and Manika have, for now, set their eyes on the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games scheduled in the second part of this year.

“We are taking one match at a time. The focus is on constantly improving. We want to do well at major competitions and win as much as possible for India,” she remarked on the duo’s long term goals as a doubles pair.

26-year-old Manika has set another high by entering the top-10 in the mixed doubles ranking along with her partner - Tamil Nadu’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.