Manika Batra
Manika Batra | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Manika Batra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Indian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | [1] Delhi, India[1] | 15 June 1995||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) (2018)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 67 kg (148 lb) (2018)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing style | Shakehand grip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Manika Batra (born 15 June 1995) is an Indian table tennis player. As of January 2019, she is the top-ranked female table tennis player in India and ranked 47th in the world.
Early life
Batra was born on 15 June 1995 as the youngest of three children.[3] She hails from Naraina Vihar in Delhi[4] and began playing table tennis at the age of four.[5] Her elder sister Anchal and elder brother Sahil both played table tennis,[6] with Anchal having an influence on her during her early playing career.[7] 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 where he ran his academy.[6]
Batra turned down many modelling offers as a teenager.[1] When she was 16, she declined a scholarship to train at the Peter Karlsson Academy in Sweden.[8] She studied at the Jesus and Mary College for a year before dropping out to "concentrate" on table tennis.[9]
Career
In 2011, Batra won the silver medal in the under-21 category of the Chile Open.[5] She represented India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, where she finished quarterfinalist,[6] as well as the 2014 Asian Games. She won three medals at the 2015 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships,[7] winning silver in the women's team event (with Ankita Das and Mouma Das) as well as the women's doubles event (with Ankita Das) and bronze in the women's singles event.[10]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/21st_Commonwealth_Games_Indian_Womens_TT_team.jpg/220px-21st_Commonwealth_Games_Indian_Womens_TT_team.jpg)
Batra won three gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games,[11] winning the women's doubles event (with Pooja Sahasrabudhe), mixed doubles event (with Anthony Amalraj) and women's team event (with Mouma Das and Shamini Kumaresan). 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.[12] She qualified for the women's singles event of the 2016 Summer Olympics by winning the South Asia group of the qualification tournament in April 2016.[13] However, her appearance at the 2016 Olympics short-lived, as she lost to Katarzyna Grzybowska of Poland in the first round of the women's individual event. [14]
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 in Gold Coast, Australia.[15] 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 as well as Zhou Yihan in India's 3–1 win in the final.[16]
Batra and Mouma Das won India's maiden silver medal in the women's doubles category at the 2018 Commonwealth Games losing to defending champions Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore in the gold medal clash. Manika Batra became 1st Indian woman to bag a commonwealth table tennis individual gold medal in CWG 2018 by beating Yu Mengyu of Singapore. These games were like dream run for Batra as she won 4 medals in 4 events she was participating out of which 2 are gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal.[17]
On 12 December 2018 she became the only Indian to receive "The Breakthrough Star Award" by ITTF.
In the media
Batra was featured on the cover of the July 2018 issue of Femina.[18]
She also featured in the November 2018 edition of Vogue Magazine.
References
- ^ a b c d e "Manika Batra". Glasgow 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ^ "BATRA Manika (IND) - WR List 6/2016". ITTF. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
- ^ Judge, Shahid (3 July 2016). "India's table tennis hope for Rio 2016 Olympics – Manika Batra". The Indian Express. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ^ "Paddler Manika Batra completes hat-trick of gold medals at South Asian Games". News18. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
- ^ a b "Manika Batra: the new hope of the nation". The Hindu. 21 August 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ^ a b c Sen, Debayan (27 July 2016). "Manika Batra looks to Rio and beyond". ESPN.in. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ^ a b Ghoshal, Shuvro (11 February 2016). "Interview with Manika Batra: "I don't want to go to Rio Olympics and return without a medal"". Yahoo!. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
- ^ Judge, Shahid (18 December 2015). "Improved fitness key to Manika Batra's consistency". The Indian Express. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ^ Patra, Pratyush (6 May 2016). "Delhi love & Rio talk before Olympics". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ^ Keerthivasan, K. (21 December 2015). "Singapore sweeps singles titles". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ^ "Rio Zone – Manika Batra: Nation's new hope". Pune Mirror. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ^ "South Asian Games: India clean sweeps 12 medals in Table Tennis". Ten Sports. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
- ^ "Table Tennis: Soumyajit Ghosh, Manika Batra book Rio Olympics berths with victories in Asian Qualifiers". DNA India. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ^ "Rio Olympics 2016: Mouma Das, Manika Batra lose as Indian women's challenge in table tennis ends". First Post. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ "Manika Batra leads India to historic women Table Tennis gold at Commonwealth Games". The Economic Times. 8 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ "CWG 2018: India women win gold in table tennis team event". Commonwealth Games News. Times of India. 8 April 2018.
- ^ "Manika Batra wins bronze in the mixed doubles to win her fourth medal". Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- ^ "India's golden girls glam up Femina's latest cover". Rediff. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
External links
- 1995 births
- Living people
- Indian female table tennis players
- Sportswomen from Delhi
- Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
- Olympic table tennis players of India
- 21st-century Indian women
- 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
- Commonwealth Games medallists in table tennis
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for India
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India
- Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for India
- University of Delhi alumni
- South Asian Games gold medalists for India
- South Asian Games silver medalists for India