Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah, the Indian Table Tennis men’s doubles duo, secured a career-high world No 3 rank in the latest ITTF rankings on Monday. They became the highest-ranked Indian paddlers in the history of the sport.
Thakkar and Shah currently have 3560 points, trailing only behind China’s Lin Shidong – Huang Youzheng (5510) and France’s Alexis Lebrun – Felix Lebrun (4058) in the standings.
The duo hailing from Gujarat surpassed the former women’s doubles pair of Manika Batra and Archana Kamath, who had so far held the distinction of being the highest-ranked Indians ever at World No 4. The ladies achieved the milestone back in 2022.
Manika Batra was also ranked World No 5 in mixed doubles along with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.
Thakkar and Shah earned a major portion of their points at the 2026 Singapore Smash, where they reached the semi-finals and earned 900 points. In addition, they reached the quarter-finals of the 2026 US Smash, earning an additional 580 points toward World No 3.
Thakkar and Shah’s other notable results include the runner-up finish at the 2025 WTT Star Contender Foz do Iguaçu (420 points) and the title win at the 2026 WTT Contender Lagos (400 points).
Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah will compete at the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, as part of the Indian men’s table tennis squad.
