Indian badminton ace Kidambi Srikanth has officially replaced Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen to become World Number 1 in the latest edition of the BWF rankings that were released on Thursday.
Srikanth becomes the first Indian male player to achieve this feat and will join Saina Nehwal, who became the first Indian girl to become world No. 1. In March 2015, Saina had scaled the summit and remains the only Indian girl to achieve this feat thus far.
Srikanth won four Super Series titles – Indonesia, Australia, Denmark, France – in 2017 and became only the fourth shuttler in the world to achieve this feat. He had secured the No.2 ranking on November 2, 2017
Srikanth, who helped India clinch a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on Monday in mixed team badminton event, has now moved to the top of rankings with 76,895 points.Reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen has 77130 points but lost 1660 points and slipped down the ladder and won’t be able to defend the Malaysian Open title that he had won last year.
