Manika Batra Biography

Manika Batra is an Indian table tennis player who currently is the top-ranked female table tennis player in India. She is ranked 58th in the world. She is the winner of three medals at Common Wealth Games 2018, including one individual gold creating new history for India. As of now, she won one individual gold, one team gold and one doubles silver for India. Earlier Batra won three gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games also.

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. It’s indeed a unique achievement and history made, as Singapore team has never lost their finals since the game was introduced into Common Wealth games in 2002. Also, in the individual game, Manika Batra becomes the first Indian woman to win table tennis GOLD in the women's singles event at the Commonwealth Games. Batra defeated world number 4 Feng Tianwei as well as Zhou Yihan in India's 3–1 win in the final giving India a historic win and record in Common Wealth Games. 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.

Batra was born on 15 June 1995 in Delhi. She has two elder siblings, who also play table tennis since young. She began playing table tennis at the age of four. She won a match in a state-level under-8 tournament, and took it seriously. She began her training under coach Sandeep Gupta, and later at Hans Raj Model School under his suggestion. In 2011, Batra won the silver medal in the under-21 category of the Chile Open. She made her Common Wealth games and Asian games debut in the year 2014, and earned three medals in the next year CWG. Batra won three gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games, and in 2018 she did an outstanding performance in Common Wealth Games.

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Updated: April 22, 2018