Commonwealth Games silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth’s reign at the pinnacle did not last long as the Indian shuttler slipped a massive four places to fifth in the new world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, April 19, 2018. World champion Viktor Axelsen is thus back to the top after having relinquished the prized ranking to the Pullela Gopichand protégé for a week.
Srikanth’s fall was a result of the Singapore Open Superseries points coming off this week. The 25-year-old reached the final at that tournament last year, by dint of which, he had accumulated a whopping 7800 points. Since the BWF system considers the 10 best results in the past 52 weeks, losing the Singapore points affected his ranking badly.
India’s B Sai Praneeth was also a casualty. The Singapore Open Superseries champion gave up 9200 points from his tally and that pushed his ranking down by four spots to 19th.
Since HS Prannoy did not participate at the Singapore Open in 2017, he rose a solitary rung to 10th in the current world rankings. Prannoy, who squandered a couple of match points in the bronze medal match at the Commonwealth Games, thus matches his career-best ranking.
Among other men’s singles players in the top 50, Sameer Verma is down to 31st while Parupalli Kashyap climbed a spot to 37th. In the 50-100 bracket, Sourabh Verma is 59th, Subhankar Dey is 63rd, Ajay Jayaram is 81st, Rahul Yadav Chittaboina is 85th, Abhishek Yeligar is 91st, Karan Rajan Rajarajan is 97th and Shreyansh Jaiswal is 100th.
Saina and Sindhu remain static; Yamaguchi becomes #1
While PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal remain static at the third and the 12th positions respectively, there is a major change in the women’s singles rankings. Dubai World Superseries Finals champion Akane Yamaguchi has dethroned Tai Tzu Ying to become the new World No. 1.
With this achievement, the 20-year-old Yamaguchi has created history as she is now the first ever Japanese singles player to be ranked at the top in badminton.
Career best ranking for Rankireddy and Shetty
The India No. 1 men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who captured a Commonwealth Games silver medal, is now placed at a career-high ranking of 18th after rising three places this week. National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also surged a couple of spots to 32nd.
In women’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy soared one spot to 25th.
In mixed doubles, Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra made a jump of three places to 22nd. National champions Rankireddy and Ponnappa are currently at 55th.
