After winning three titles - in Otocec, Tunis and Muscat - this season, the Indian paddler has scaled the U-17 peak.

The latest International Table Tennis Federation rankings update saw table tennis ace Payas Jain shoot to number one in the Under-17 men's category, becoming the scond Indian to do so.

The reigning National youth and junior champion surpassed his previous best of World No. 2 after winning three titles - in Otocec, Tunis and Muscat - this season.

Even in the under-19 section, Payas climbed to the seventh spot - a jump of five places from last week.

Among the girls, there were quite a few Indians in single-digit world rankings. Swastika Ghosh and Yashaswini Ghorpade held the 7th and 8th spots in the under-19 rankings. In fact, Yashaswini is also placed fifth in the under-17 section.

Suhana Saini, winner of titles in Slovenia, Tunisia and Oman this season in the WTT youth series, is placed fourth in under-15, Hansini  Mathan Rajan is ranked third in under-13 and Dhani Jain is second in under-11.

World youth rankings (top two Indians):

Boys: (U-19): 7. Payas Jain, 36. Yashansh Malik; (u-17): 1. Payas Jain, 30. Preyash Raj; (u-15): 8. Preyash Raj, 27. Ankur Bhattacharya; (u-13): 11. P. B. Abhinandh, 15. Atherva Gupta; (u-11): 6. Vishruth Ramakrishnan, 19. Aarnav Chandra.

Girls (U-19): 7. Swastika Ghosh, 8. Yashaswini Ghorpade; (u-17): 5. Yashaswini Ghorpade, 12. Suhana Saini; (u-15): 4. Suhana Saini, 21. Hansini Mathan Rajan; (u-13): 3. Hansini Mathan Rajan, 11. Dhaani Jain; (u-11): 2. Dhaani Jain, 9. Ananya Muralidharan.