Manika Batra Biography – Once a shy teenager is now India’s wonder ‘paddler’ woman!
Family Background of Manika Batra:
On June 15, 1995, Manika Batra was born in Delhi to the couple Girish Batra & Sushma Batra. She is the youngest among her siblings. Her elder sister Anchal and brother Sahil Batra used to play Table Tennis; only then she got inspired to play this game.
At the age of 4 or 5, Manika Batra started playing Table Tennis. Later, she won a match at the state-level competition in the Under-8 category & decided to take proper training in TT. She then started her training in Hans Raj Model School under the guidance of Sandeep Gupta.
After completing her schooling, she joined Delhi-based Jesus and Mary College to pursue her studies further. But, within a year, she dropped out and turned her focus entirely on Table Tennis (TT).
In deciding to drop college, her mother played an important role, as she greatly supported her in choosing TT over academics. However, later, she finished her graduation in Humanities from University of Delhi.
Manika Batra Biography:
| Manika Batra’s Profile | |
|---|---|
| Personal Life | |
| Full Name | Manika Batra |
| Nickname | Manna |
| Date of Birth | June 15, 1995 |
| Age | 29 years 5 months (in November, 2024) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Zodiac/Sun Sign | Gemini |
| Birth Place | Delhi, India |
| School | Hans Raj Model School, New Delhi |
| College | Jesus and Mary College University of Delhi. |
| Physical Stats | |
| Height (approx) | 6 ft (1.83 m) (183 cm) |
| Weight (approx) | 65 kg (143 lbs) |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Brown |
| Family & Relationships | |
| Father | Girish Batra |
| Mother | Sushma Batra |
| Siblings | Anchal Batra, Sahil Batra |
| Marital Status | Unmarried |
| Boyfriend | Not Known |
| Career | |
| Profession | Table Tennis Player |
| Coach | Sandeep Gupta, Sanmay Paranjape |
| Playing Style | Attacking |
| Dominant Hand | Right hand |
| Grip | Shakehand |
| Rubber backhand | Tibhar Grass D.TecS |
| Employer | Indian Oil Corporation Ltd |
TT Career of Manika Batra:
In 2010, she won gold at the South Asian Junior TT Championship. In 2011, she won silver at the singles event in the Chile Open tournament. Also, in the same year, she won silver at the Spanish Open singles event.
Later, in 2012, she again won a silver medal at the Spanish open singles event.
2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games (CWG):
At the age of 19, Manika Batra participated in her first Commonwealth Games. Later, she became the first Indian Tabel Tennis female player to qualify for Quarter-finals in CWG games.
Women Singles-
In the women’s single’s second round and in her first match, she beat New Zealand’s Annie Yang by 4-0, which lasted 21 minutes.
She won against Canada’s A Luo in the next round and then became the first Indian women TT player to qualify for the quarter-finals. Later, in the quarter-final against Singapore, she lost by 1-4 from Singapore’s Y Lin.
Mixed Doubles-
In a mixed doubles event at CWG 2014, she was partnered with Sanil Shankar Shetty. They beat Barbados’ duo by 3-0. Later, they lost to New Zealand’s pair by 0-3.
Women’s Team-
Batra, MS Patkar, and S Kumaresan represented the Indian TT team at the 2014 CWG. They beat Barbados in their first game by 3-0.
Then, by beating Kenya, they reached the quarter-final, where they defeated New Zealand by 3-0. But, in the semifinal, opposite Singapore, India lost by 1-3.
2014 Asian Games:
She won her first game at the 2014 Asian Games, as she defeated Macau’s Ma Chao by 4-0. But in her very next match, she lost to Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa by 0-4.
2015 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship:
2015 Commonwealth TT Championship held in Surat at Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium. Manika won a bronze medal at a women’s singles event after losing against Singapore’s Zhou Yiyan in the semifinals.
| Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship (2015) | |
|---|---|
| Category | Medal |
| Women’s Singles | Bronze |
| Women’s Doubles | Silver |
| Women’s Team | Silver |
Batra, along with Ankita Das and Mouma Das, won silver at the women’s team event. In the women’s Doubles event, Batra and Ankita Das lost in the final match after defeating the Singapore duo by 3-0 in the semifinals.
Later, she participated in TT tournaments, including the Swedish Open, Belgium Open, and Australian Open, where she didn’t perform well. Even at the 2015 World Table Tennis Championship, her first world’s TT championship in which she participated, she lost in her very first game.
However, Batra won gold at the Perfect World Championship in the second division held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2016.
Batra at South Asian Games 2016:
12th South Asian Games were held in India played at Guwahati and Shillong. India topped the award tally by 308 medals, and Table Tennis also topped the list with 12 medals.
Manika won one Silver and 3 gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games.
| South Asian Games (2016) | |
|---|---|
| Category | Medal |
| Women’s Singles | Silver |
| Women’s Doubles | Gold |
| Mixed Doubles | Gold |
| Women’s Team | Gold |
Women’s Singles-
She won silver at singles events, as she lost to Mouma Das in finals by 4-2.
Women’s Doubles-
Pooja Sahasrabudhe and Batra’s duo defeated the other Indian pair of Mouma Das and Shamini Kumaresan by a straight 3-0 in the final.
Mixed Doubles-
She and Anthony Amalraj defeated the other Indian mixed couple by 3-2 and won the gold medal.
Women’s Team-
Indian paddlers clean-swept Pakistan’s team in the final and won gold. In this category, she defeated Raheela Kashif by 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-6).
2016 Rio Olympics:
At the age of 20, she qualified for Rio Olympics after winning the Asian Olympic Qualification events held in Hong Kong. Although she lost her first match at the qualifying event, she won her next two games by defeating K Shamini and Mouma Das.
At Rio Olympics, Manika Batra played her debut Rio match opposite Poland’s Katarzyna Grzybowska. The match lasted for 48 minutes, in which Batra lost the game by 2-4 against the experienced Katarzyna.
Gold by Batra at Gold Coast CWG:
Indian paddlers won 3 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze medals at Gold Coast CWG, out of which Manika solely won 2 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze.
| Gold Coast Commonwealth Games (2018) | |
|---|---|
| Category | Medal |
| Women’s Singles | Gold |
| Women’s Doubles | Silver |
| Mixed Doubles | Bronze |
| Women’s Team | Gold |
GOLD in women’s singles-
At CWG women’s singles events, she defeated then world no. 4 Singapore’s Feng Tianwei by 4-2. Later, in the final, she won against Yu Mengyu in straight four games. This victory made Manika Batra the first Indian woman to win individual gold at the commonwealth in Table Tennis.
GOLD in women’s team-
Manika, Mouma Das, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Madhurika Patkar, and Pooja Sahasrabudhe represented the Indian women’s Table Tennis team at Gold Coast CWG. Also, they created history by winning gold at CWG.
Indian women’s team won the final against Singapore by 3-1.
Out of the four matches played in the final, she played and won both her games by 3-2 and 3-0.
Silver in Women’s Doubles-
Manika and Mouma Das lost their final against Singapore’s Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu. Before that, they beat Malaysia’s doubles team by 3-0.
Bronze in Mixed Doubles-
She and her partner, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, lost to England’s Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho by 3-2. Then, in the bronze medal match, Batra and Sathiyan won three games opposite the other Indian duo.
2018 Jakarta Palembang Asian Games:
At the 18th Asian Games, India’s paddlers could only add two bronze medals to the Table Tennis telly. One bronze was won by the men’s paddler team, and the other by Manika and Sharat.
China’s Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha defeated the Indian duo in the semifinals by 4-1 (11-9, 11-5, 11-13, 11-4, 11-8). Before that, in the women’s singles event, her journey ended only in the event’s second round.
2019 ITTF World Tour Championship:
Hungarian Open, 2019-
In 2019, her new year started with a win at the Hungarian Open singles event. She defeated Sweden’s Kallberg Christina by 4-0 and qualified for the next round.
Then, she defeated Romania’s Monteiro Daniela, Spain’s Dvorak Galia, and Hungary’s Pota Georgina. But, in the round of 16, she lost to China’s Chen Meng by 0-4.
Qatar Open, WT Platinum 2019-
In the singles event, she lost to South Korea’s Kim Youjin by 0-4 in the very first round. Later, she lost both her Doubles (women’s doubles and mixed doubles) matches.
Hong Kong Open 2019-
She won against Thai paddler Sawettabut Jinnipa by 4-2 at the women’s singles event. But, she lost to Taiwan’s Chen Szu-Yu by 2-4 in the next round.
At the Mixed Doubles event, she and her partner lost in the first round, and in the Women’s Doubles event, they lost in the second round.
Japan Open, WT Platinum-
At the women’s singles event, she won her first match but lost to China’s paddler in the next round. At mixed Doubles and women’s Doubles events, her team lost in the round of 16.
World Table Tennis Championship 2019:
She won her first match by 4-0 at the singles event against Serbian paddler but lost her next battle against Taiwan’s Chen Szu-Yu by 1-4.
At the mixed Doubles event, she and Sharat Kamal lost in the initial round by 1-4. At the women’s Doubles event, she and Archana Girish won her first match by 4-0; however, she lost in the next round to the Japanese duo by 0-4.
Olympics 2021:
Batra was knocked out by Sofia Polcanova (Austria) in the third round of women’s singles. Earlier, she defeated Tin-Tin Ho (Britain) and Margaryta Pesotska (Ukrain) in the first and second rounds.
Later, she won silver at WTT Contender Doha 2022 in mixed doubles. Apart from that, Manika Archana Kamath reached the pair ranking of world no. 4, the highest ever by an Indian tennis player, in April 2022.
Road to Olympics 2024:
Later, Batra qualified for the 2024 Olympics based on her world rankings. In the Round of 64 in women’s singles, she defeated Britain’s Anna Hursey 4-1 (11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5).
Facts about Manika Batra:
- She was shy and introverted in her childhood.
- She won silver in her first national competition at about 15 years of age.
- At the age of 16, she declined a scholarship to train at the Peter Karlsson Academy in Sweden.
- Her tricolored nails during Commonwealth Games 2018.
- She rejected many modeling offers during her TT career.
- In 2018, she won the prestigious Arjuna Award for her great efforts in TT.
- She was the national champion in the category of women and youth girls in the year 2016.
- Manika became the first Indian to receive the ITTF’s 2018 Breakthrough Star award.
- As per ITTF, her current world ranking (women’s singles) is 28. (Updated: July 23, 2024)
- Her highest ever world ranking was 24.
- Batra is India’s highest-ranked women’s Table Tennis player.
- In 2018, she appeared on the cover of Femina magazine.
- She has played for the Dabangg Smashers team in the UTT league.
- Manika won the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in the year 2020.
- She won 4 Gold, 2 Silver & a Bronze in the National Ranking TT Championship 2015.
Some more interesting facts of TT Star:
- Favorites:
- Sportspersons – Cristiano Ronaldo, Maria Sharapova, Sharath Kamal, and Sachin Tendulkar.
- Actress – Alia Bhatt
- Batra’s mother had been honored by the Times of India for her great support towards her daughter.
- She likes to watch The Big Bang Theory, an American sitcom TV show.
Frequently asked questions on Google:
Q1: What is the age of Manika?
Ans: 29 years 5 months (in November, 2024)
Q2: What is the height of Manika Batra?
Ans: 6 ft. (1.83 m or 183 cm)
Q3: Who is the husband of Manika Batra?
Ans: Not married
Social Media Accounts:
- Mithali Raj
- Amala Paul
- Navdeep Saini
- Gunjan Saxena
- Shubman Gill
- Curran Walters
- Sanju Samson
- Tulsi Gabbard
- Bhawana Kanth
- Apurvi Chandela
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