A Commonwealth Games gold medallist, a two-time Olympian and winner of multiple other honours, Manika Batra is one of the true stars of Indian table tennis.

At Tokyo 2020, Manika Batra became the first women’s table tennis player from India to make it to the round of 32 in singles at an Olympics.

Manika Batra, though, first rose to fame at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia when she bagged four medals, two of them gold.

Before that, Manika Batra had won three gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games and made her Olympic debut at Rio 2016.

Whilst table tennis was her first love - she began playing with her siblings from an early age - the Delhi-born Manika Batra turned down modelling offers in her teens to concentrate on the sport.