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Indian national badminton champion HS Prannoy climbed four spots to 12th as the latest world rankings were released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, March 22, 2018. The ranking rise was triggered by Prannoy’s run to the quarter-finals of the All England Open last week.
This was the first time that the Kerala shuttler made it to the last-eight at the world’s oldest badminton tournament in four attempts. He was the only men’s singles exponent from India to reach this far in 2018 as both Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth crashed out early.
The Pullela Gopichand protégé is now just a couple of places shy of his career-best ranking of 10th.
Meanwhile, Srikanth failed to clinch the top spot after bowing out in the second round. The result sees him static at the second position in the chart and he is now just 235 points adrift of the top-ranked Viktor Axelsen.
Sai Praneeth fell three places to 15th, Sameer Verma is 37th and Parupalli Kashyap is 42nd. Beyond the top 50, Ajay Jayaram is 56th, Sourabh Verma is 59th and Subhankar Dey is 63rd.
No change for Saina and Sindhu
There is no change in the rankings this week for the country’s top two women’s shuttlers. Despite reaching the semi-finals of the All England Open for the first time in her career, PV Sindhu continues to remain third.
Former All England Open runner-up Saina Nehwal, who made a first round exit this time, maintains her 12th ranking.
The India No. 3 Ruthvika Shivani Gadde is 55th, followed by Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli at 63rd and Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka at 64th respectively. Former national champion Rituparna Das is 86th.
Career high ranking for Rankireddy and Shetty
The fast-rising men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty nearly upset the eventual runners-up Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen in the second round of the All England Open. And their efforts have been rewarded with a rise of a solitary spot to 20th.
This is the first time that the 20-year-old Shetty and the 17-year-old Rankireddy have found a place in the world’s top 20.
National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy are currently placed at 34th.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy slipped one spot to 26th. The India No. 1 mixed doubles combine of Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra rose to 24th while the national champions Ponnappa and Rankireddy are 58th.
