Manika Batra (born 15 June 1995) is an Indian

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player. As of November 2020, she is the top-ranked female table tennis player in India and ranked 44th in the world as of November 22. She was awarded the

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna The Khel Ratna Award (), officially known as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award ( Major Dhyan Chand Sport Jewel Award), is the highest sporting honour of India. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Governm ...

in 2020.

Early life

Batra was born on 15 June 1995 as the youngest of three children. She hails from

Naraina Vihar Naraina Vihar is a residential locality in South West Delhi. It is composed of flats built by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and privately built houses. The neighborhood is connected with Delhi Metro by Naraina Vihar station. Naraina A ...

in Delhi and began playing table tennis at the age of four. Her elder sister Anchal and elder brother Sahil both played table tennis, with Anchal having an influence on her during her early playing career. After winning a match in a state-level under-8 tournament, Batra decided to train under coach Sandeep Gupta who suggested her to switch to

Hans Raj Model School Hans Raj Model School (also called HRMS) is a co-educational private school in Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi, India, which provides education to pupils from kindergarten through the 12th grade. The school is located in the suburbs of West Delhi and is ...

where he ran his academy. Batra turned down many modelling offers as a teenager. When she was 16, she declined a scholarship to train at the Peter Karlsson Academy in Sweden. She studied at the

Jesus and Mary College Jesus and Mary College (JMC) is a women-only college of the University of Delhi located in New Delhi, India. The college offers bachelor's degrees in Commerce, Arts, and Mathematics. The college offers honors degrees in Elementary Education, H ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

for a year before dropping out to concentrate on table tennis.

Career

In 2011, Batra won the silver medal in the under-21 category of the Chile Open. She represented India at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

at Glasgow, where she finished quarterfinalist, as well as the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games ( ko, 2014년 아시아 경기대회/2014년 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sa nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 17th Asian Games ( ko, 제17회 아시아 경기대회/제17회 ...

. She won three medals at the 2015

Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships The Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships was born at a meeting of Commonwealth delegates in Munich at the 1969 World Championships. Prior to inclusion in the Commonwealth Games proper in 2002, 15 Commonwealth Championships have taken place since ...

, winning silver in the women's team event (with

Ankita Das Ankita Das (born 17 July 1993) is an Indian table tennis player from Siliguri, West Bengal. She participated in World Championship and reached quarter-finals. She represented India at the 2012 London Summer Olympics in Women's singles even ...

and

Mouma Das Mouma Das (born 24 February 1984) is an Indian table tennis player. Born and brought up in Kolkata, West Bengal, she has represented India in international events since the early 2000s. Das has won multiple medals at the Commonwealth Games inc ...

) as well as the women's doubles event (with Ankita Das) and bronze in the women's singles event. Batra won three gold medals at the

2016 South Asian Games The 2016 South Asian Games, officially the XII South Asian Games, is a major multi-sport event which took place from 5 February to 16 February 2016 in Guwahati and Shillong, India. A total of 2,672 athletes competed in 226 events over 22 sports ...

, winning the women's doubles event (with

Pooja Sahasrabudhe Pooja Sahasrabudhe is an Indian International Table tennis player from Thane, Maharashtra. She comes from a humble middle-class background, and was born and brought up in Thane, Maharashtra. She took to Table tennis at the age of 9 in the year ...

), mixed doubles event (with

Anthony Amalraj Amalraj Anthony Arputharaj (born 24 January 1986) is a professional table tennis player from Tamil Nadu India. He won silver medal at 2014 Commonwealth Games in doubles with Sharath Kamal. Amalraj won the National Table Tennis Championship in ...

) and women's team event (with Mouma Das and

Shamini Kumaresan Shamini Kumaresan ( ta, ஷாமினி குமரேசன்; born 1988) is a professional table tennis player from Tamil Nadu, India. She did her schooling from Atomic Energy Central School Kalpakkam and Adarsh Vidyalaya, Chennai. She ...

). Batra was denied a fourth gold medal at the Games by Mouma Das, who defeated her in the final of the women's singles event. She qualified for the women's singles event of the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

by winning the South Asia group of the qualification tournament in April 2016. However, her appearance at the 2016 Olympics short-lived, as she lost to Katarzyna Grzybowska of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in the first round of the women's individual event. Batra led the Indian women's team to a gold medal win in the final against four-time gold medalists and defending champions Singapore at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

in Gold Coast, Australia. The Singapore women's table tennis team had never lost in the Commonwealth Games since the sport was inducted in the program in 2002. Batra defeated world number 4

Feng Tianwei Feng Tianwei (, ) is a Singaporean table tennis player. Born in Harbin, China, she permanently moved to Singapore at the age of 20 under the former Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in March 2007 and commenced her international career in competit ...

as well as

Zhou Yihan Zhou Yihan (; born 30 January 1994) is a Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player. Born in China, she moved to Singapore in 2009 via the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme. She was eligible to play in 2011. Zhou won a team gold at the 2014 Comm ...

in India's 3–1 win in the final. Batra and

won India's maiden silver medal in the women's doubles category at the

losing to defending champions Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore in the gold medal clash. Batra became the first Indian woman to bag a commonwealth table tennis individual gold medal in CWG 2018 by beating Yu Mengyu of Singapore. She won 4 medals in 4 events she was participating out of which 2 are gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal. At the 2019

, Batra was the member of the women's team which win the gold by defeating

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in the final. At the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, Batra reached the third round of the women's singles event, becoming the first Indian paddler to reach the third round at the Olympics in a singles event. Batra won the 2021 wtt contender Budapest mixed doubles with

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (born 8 January 1993) is an Indian table tennis player, who is the highest ranked Indian, currently ranked at 39 in the world as of November 2022. He was a member of the Indian team that won back to back Gold medals in 201 ...

by outplaying

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

's Dora Madarasz and Nandor Ecseki 3-1. Batra then won wtt contender Lasko 2021 women's doubles with Archana Girish Kamath by beating Diaz Sisters pair of Melanie Diaz and Adriana Diaz from

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

11-3, 11-8, 12-10. The Indian duo saved four game points in the third set to seal the match. Batra participated at the 1st ever WTT Grand Smash event which was the Singapore Smash 2022. In the singles her run ended in the 1st round after losing to Zhang Mo. In the mixed doubles she and

lost top seeds

Lin Yun-ju Lin Yun-Ju ( born 17 August 2001) is a Taiwanese table tennis player.

and Cheng I Ching in straight games 3-0. In the women's doubles event she and Archana Girish Kamath lost to Japanese pair of

Hina Hayata is a Japanese international table tennis player. She is the most successful player on the ITTF Challenge Series since its inception in 2017. Owing to her stature, she is able to generate powerful spins on both wings more so than most female pla ...

and Mima Itō 3-0 in the Quarter-finals. Batra settled for silver at WTT Contender Doha 2022 with

in mixed doubles where they lost against the top-seeded

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

pair of

Lin Yun-ju Lin Yun-Ju ( born 17 August 2001) is a Taiwanese table tennis player.

and

Cheng I-Ching Cheng I-ching (; born 15 February 1992) is a Taiwanese table tennis player. She competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the women's singles event, in which she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Li Xiaoxia, and as part of the Chinese Taipei ...

. The Indians lost 4-11, 5-11, 3-11 in straight games. Batra then bagged a bronze at WTT Star Contender Doha 2022 in women's doubles event with Archana Girish Kamath. They lost in the Semi-finals to Li Yu-Jhun and

8-11, 6-11, 7-11. On 5 April 2022, the pair of Batra and Archana Girish Kamath reached the pair ranking of world no. 4 which is the highest ever ranking by an Indian tennis player in all categories (Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles).

Controversies

In September 2021, Batra accused Indian National Coach Soumyadeep Roy of pressuring her to throw a match at the Olympic Qualifiers (in March) to his personal student.

Awards

*2020 –

, highest sporting honour of India *2018 –

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

, second-highest sporting honour of India *2018 – The Breakthrough Star Award by ITTF

In the media

Batra was featured on the cover of the July 2018 issue of Femina. She also featured in the November 2018 edition of

Vogue Magazine ''Vogue'' is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers many topics, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. Based at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, ''Vogue ...

References

External links

*
International Table Tennis Federation's profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Batra, Manika 1995 births Living people Indian female table tennis players Racket sportspeople from Delhi Sportswomen from Delhi Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players of India 21st-century Indian women 21st-century Indian people Table tennis players at the 2014 Asian Games Table tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in table tennis Asian Games bronze medalists for India Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Table tennis players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Table tennis players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in table tennis Commonwealth Games gold medallists for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for India Delhi University alumni South Asian Games gold medalists for India South Asian Games silver medalists for India South Asian Games medalists in table tennis Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award Recipients of the Arjuna Award