Sreeja Akula | |
---|---|
Personal information | |
Nationality | Indian |
Born | Hyderabad, India [1] | 31 July 1998
Table tennis career | |
Playing style | Right-handed, shakehand grip |
Highest ranking | 22 (06 August 2024) [2] |
Current ranking | 23 (12 November 2024) [3] |
Sreeja Akula (born 31 July 1998) is an Indian table tennis player. She is a two-time Indian national champion. She is currently ranked India number one in women's singles. [4] Akula received the Arjuna Award in 2022.
At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Akula won the gold medal in the mixed doubles event with Sharath Kamal. In June 2024, she became the first Indian to win a singles title at the WTT Contender level by clinching the top spot at WTT Contender Lagos.
She also became the second ever Indian paddler to reach the Pre-Quarterfinals in the Olympics at the Paris Olympics 2024. [5]
Sreeja hails from Hyderabad. Both her father Praveen Kumar, a manager in a private insurance company, and elder sister Ravali are table tennis players. [6] Ravali played at the university level. Sreeja trained under coach Somnath Ghosh, [7] at his academy at Kukatpally, Hyderabad. Before that she learnt the basics at St Paul’s Academy in Basheer Bagh when she was nine years and continued the game at YMCA in Narayanguda, [6] She passed her intermediate (plus two) with 98.7 percent and then graduated in commerce. Telangana State Table Tennis Association (TSTTA) Secretary Nagendra Reddy was one of her first coaches. [6]
Akula was the gold medalist in Women's Doubles and Women's Team events in Table tennis at the 2019 South Asian Games. [8]
Akula won the women's singles and doubles table tennis titles at the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships held in April 2022. [9] She was the runner-up in national Women's singles in the previous edition, losing to Manika Batra. She was also a part of the Indian team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games where she won gold medal in mixed doubles event with Sharath Kamal. [6] [10]
In January 2024, Sreeja won her maiden WTT singles career title at the WTT Feeder Corpus Christi in Texas. [10] This was followed by her second singles career title at the WTT Feeder Beirut II in March 2024 where she beat Luxembourg’s Sarah De Nutte 3-1 (6-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-9) in the final. [11] Sreeja defeated WR2 Chinese paddler Wang Yidi in a group match at 2024 World Team Championships, although her team narrowly lost the tie as 2–3. At the WTT Contender Lagos in June 2024, Akula became the first Indian to win a title at the Contender level. She achieved this feat by beating China's Ding Yijie with a 4-1 score in the ultimate clash. At the same event, she also won the women's doubles title alongside Archana Kamath. [12]
Year | Tournament | Final opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | WTT Contender Lagos | Ding Yijie | 4–1 |
2024 | WTT Feeder Corpus Christi | Lily Zhang | 3–0 |
2024 | WTT Feeder Beirut II | Sarah De Nutte | 3–1 |
Achanta Sharath Kamal is an Indian professional table tennis player. He is the first Indian table tennis player ever to become ten time Senior National Champion hence breaking the record of eight-time National Champion Kamlesh Mehta. In 2019 he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award and in 2022, he was awarded the Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour. He beat Joo Se Hyuk and Chuang Chih-yuan, world no. 8 and 16 respectively in 2015 28th Asian cup at Jaipur. Sharath won the men's singles gold in the 16th Commonwealth table tennis championship held at Kuala Lumpur in 2004. He is a recipient of the Arjuna award for the year 2004.
Mouma Das 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 including a gold in the Women's Team Competition in 2018. She was awarded the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting honour in 2013 for her contributions to the sport.
Mima Ito is a Japanese table tennis player. She won a bronze medal in the Women's Team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics at age 15. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal with her partner Jun Mizutani in the inaugural mixed doubles event, bronze in women's singles, and silver in the women's team event.
Miu Hirano is a Japanese table tennis player. She won Women's World Cup in 2016 as the youngest ever winner. She won the women's singles at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships by sweeping away three top Chinese players. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in women's team event.
Liang Jingkun Chinese: 梁靖崑; pinyin: Liáng Jìngkūn is a Chinese professional table tennis player who is currently world rank number 2 in ITTF. He is a three-time bronze medalist in men's singles at the World Table Tennis Championships.
Manika Batra is an Indian table tennis player. She is a triple gold medalist at the South Asian Games, a double gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games, and a bronze medalist at the Asian Games, Asian Championships, and Asian Cup. She is India's number two in women and her world rank is 27 as of Nov 2024.
Jeon Ji-hee, born Tian Minwei, is a Chinese-born South Korean table tennis player of Manchu ethnicity.
Bruna Yumi Takahashi is a Brazilian table tennis player. She represented Brazil at the Summer Olympics two times since 2016. She is one of the best Americas players in the ITTF world ranking, after Puerto Rico's Adriana Diaz. Her sister Giulia Takahashi also plays table tennis.
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 more spin on both sides than most female players. She is coached by Daisuka Ishida.
Sutirtha Mukherjee is an Indian table tennis player from West Bengal. She has won national table tennis championship and also was a part of gold medal winning Indian women's team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Mukherjee also represented India at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Asian Games.She won the bronze medal for India in women's doubles table tennis in the 2022 Asian Games.
Harmeet Desai is an Indian table tennis player. He is from Surat. In 2018 Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast, Australia, He won gold in men's team event with Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalraj, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & Sanil Shetty and bronze in Men's doubles event with Sanil Shetty. Harmeet Desai won the men's singles title at Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships 2019 at Cuttack, defeated favorite Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to claim the men's singles title. He has been honoured with the Arjuna Award by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India in 2019.
Tomokazu Harimoto is a Japanese professional table tennis player who is currently world rank number 9 in ITTF. Born to Chinese parents, he became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2014. He won the world junior singles and team title at the 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships for Japan.
Miyu Nagasaki is a Japanese table tennis player.
Ayhika Mukherjee is an Indian table tennis player from West Bengal. She was part of the Indian team for the 2018 Asian Games and 2022 Asian Games. She, along with Sutirtha Mukherjee, won the bronze medal for India in women's doubles table tennis in the Asian Games.
Wang Chuqin is a Chinese professional table tennis player. He is the top ranked player in the ITTF world ranking. He was the silver medallist in men's singles, gold medallist in mixed doubles with Sun Yingsha and gold medallist in men's doubles with Fan Zhendong for the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships in Durban. He won the men's singles title at the WTT Cup Finals in 2021 and WTT Champions Xinxiang in 2022. He was crowned the men's singles title at WTT Champions Macao twice. Wang also won gold along with teammates Fan Zhendong, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan and Ma Long at the 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships. He won gold in the men's singles and mixed team events at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Sun Yingsha is a Chinese professional table tennis player. She is the current world No. 1 in women's singles.
Patrick Franziska is a German table tennis player. He is currently sponsored by Butterfly and plays with FC Saarbrücken-TT in the German Bundesliga (TTBL).
Miyuu Kihara is a Japanese table tennis player.
Shin Yu-bin is a South Korean table tennis player.
Sophie Earley is a Northern Irish table tennis player who represents England. As of November 2021, she ranked twelfth in the world Under-15 division. She participated at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the Women's singles and Mixed doubles. In singles, Earley reached the round of 16 before being knocked out and in the Mixed doubles she reached the round of 32 alongside Owen Cathcart before being knocked out.