NAGPUR: The New Year brought with it a new beginning for city paddler Jennifer Varghese. The 14-year-old, who made her international debut as an unseeded paddler in March last year, became the World No. 4 within nine months in the U-15 girls singles category.
In the latest ranking released by the World Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday for the first week of January 2023, Jennifer jumped 10 places to achieve her career-best ranking after a few of her competitors graduated to the U-17 category.
In just a span of nine months since her debut at Tunis in March, Jennifer won six international titles and earned a total of 1,115 ranking points. With the end of 2022, some of her higher ranked opponents graduated to the higher age group while a few dropped some points, and a steady Jennifer scaled a new high at the fourth position.
With this achievement, Jennifer emulated her childhood inspiration Mallika Bhandarkar, who at the age of 14 achieved her career-best ranking of World No. 7 way back in 2009 in the same U-15 group. Mallika was happy with Jennifer's achievement. In a chat with TOI Mallika said, "Congratulations Jennifer, this is just the start. Hope you do better each day."
Starting the year with a career-high ranking brought tears to Jennifer's eyes. While chatting with her mother Tina, Jennifer did not say much as she was in tears but was extremely happy. Her previous best rank was sixth in the 32nd week of 2022 rankings.
Jennifer, who is being trained by R Rajesh at the ITTC Center at Chennai, is a student of Centre Point School. She will next participate in the Maharashtra State Olympic Games at Pune before heading for the nationals at Vadodara, and Khelo India Youth Games at Indore.
Among Indian paddlers in the U-15 group, Jennifer is followed by Syndrela Das and Sayanika Maji at the 25th and 26th position respectively.
