The Indian table tennis men’s doubles pair of Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah climbed to a career high world No 3 rank in the latest ITTF rankings on Monday.
Thakkar and Shah gained one spot in the latest rankings to become the highest ranked Indian paddlers ever in the history of the sport.
With a total of 3560 points, Thakkar and Shah now only trail China’s Lin Shidong-Huang Youzheng (5510) and France’s Alexis Lebrun-Felix Lebrun (4058) in the rankings.
The duo from Gujarat is now in an uncharted territory in Indian table tennis, surpassing the former women’s doubles duo of Manika Batra and Archana Kamath, who so far held the distinction of being the highest ranked Indians ever at world No 4. They had achieved the feat four years ago in 2022.
Batra, meanwhile, was also ranked as high as world No 5 in mixed doubles along with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.
A major chunk of Thakkar and Shah’s ranking points come from the 2026 Singapore Smash, where they had made a semi-final appearance to gain 900 points.
They also reached the quarter-finals of the 2026 US Smash recently, which them an additional 580 points to climb to world No 3.
Their other notable results include the runner-up finish at the 2025 WTT Star Contender Foz do Iguacu (420 points), and the title win at the 2026 WTT Contender Lagos (400 points).
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