New Delhi
HS Prannoy, the second-highest ranking Indian men’s singles player, has moved up two spots to a career-high No 8 in the latest reshuffling of the BWF world rankings.
Prannoy, coming off his most successful year as a professional badminton player, had occupied the tenth spot in the men’s singles rankings for some time, and having last week claimed bronze at the Asia Badminton Championships, has moved to eighth.
Kidambi Srinath has moved up two spots to No 3, meanwhile.
Prannoy, the second-highest ranking Indian men’s singles player, became the third Indian to win a medal in the men’s singles event at the Asia Championships when he took home bronze last Saturday. He joined Dinesh Khanna (1965) and Anup Sridhar (2007), who had won gold and bronze respectively, after losing 16-21, 18-21 in a 52-minute encounter with reigning Olympic champion and two-time world champion Chen Long.
Last month, he was also part of the mixed team that won gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
In 2017, Prannoy won a Grand Prix Gold, reached the semi-finals of two Super Series and won the national title for the first time. He claimed his third Grand Prix Gold title by beating compatriot Parupalli Kashyap 21-15, 20-22, 21-12 in the final of the US Open and reached the semi-finals of the Indonesia Open Super Series where he lost to Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai 21-17, 26-28, 18-21.
Also in 2017, he became the first Indian to beat the big four of world badminton: Taufik Hidayat (2013), Lin Dan (2015), Chong Wei (twice in 2017) and Chen Long.
