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One of the most popular names representing the Indian tri-colour at the Paris Olympics 2024 will be table tennis star, Manika Batra. Batra will become the second Indian paddler to compete in three Olympics. The 29-year-old who became the first women’s TT player from India to reach round 32 in singles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, broke into the top 25 this year and achieved a career-high world ranking of 24 after her victory at the Saudi Smash in May.
The Khel Ratna awardee and her compatriot Sreeja Akula are the highest-seeded Indian players at the tournament, with 18th and 16th seedings. Born on June 15, 1995, Akula is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, a two-time Olympian and a winner of several honours. Batra rose to fame in the 2018 edition of the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, when she clinched four medals, including two golds.
Having made her debut at Rio 2016, Batra won three gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games. At the Tokyo Olympics, Batra defeated Tin-Tin Ho and pulled off an upset over higher-ranked Margaryta Pesotska in the round of 64 before falling to Sofia Polcanova in the round of 32. After the edition, she with Sathiyan Ganasekaran became the first Indians to win a WTT event after clinching the mixed doubles title at the WTT Contender Budapest in 2021.
Batra failed to win a medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2023 Asian Games but has already made it to the top 100 women’s singles players over the last few years.
