The latest BWF Rankings released on Thursday proved to be favourable for the top two shuttle queens of India. While PV Sindhu rose to her career-high ranking of 7th, Saina Nehwal too found herself back inside in the top 10 at 10th.
Sindhu’s ascent comes as a consequence of her fabulous play at the back-to-back Superseries tournaments – the China Open and the Hong Kong Open in November. The Rio Olympic silver medallist won the former and finished as a runner-up in the latter that triggered a jump of two spots to 7th.
As for Saina, the former World No. 1 had dropped to 11th after her first round exit at the China Open. But the 26-year-old, who came back to the circuit following a knee surgery, made it to the quarter-finals in her very next event at Hong Open which pushed her back inside the elite bracket.India No. 3 Ruthvika Shivani Gadde too soared three places to reach her career-high ranking of 49th.
Tai Tzu Ying usurps Carolina Marin from the top spot
There was a major change at the top of the table in women’s singles as the Hong Kong Open champion Tai Tzu Ying climbed to the pinnacle of the rankings for the first time in her career, unseating Carolina Marin of Spain. The Chinese Taipei shuttler was ranked third when she beat both the Olympic gold medallist Marin and the Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu for the Hong Kong crown.
Sameer Verma breaks into the top 30
The breakout star of the Hong Kong Open Superseries – India’s Sameer Verma – too has been rewarded with a rise of 13 places following his stunning show. Verma, who upset the World No. 3 Jan O Jorgensen in the semi-finals to make his maiden Superseries final, broke into the top 30 for the first time and is now placed at 30th.
His elder brother Sourabh Varma, who made it to the quarter-finals of the Scottish Grand Prix last week, also made it upwards in the BWF rankings and is now at 43rd.
Kidambi Srikanth, who has wrapped up his season early due to an ankle injury, dropped a solitary rung to be 13th while Ajay Jayaram remained static at 19th. HS Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth too dropped one spot each to be 26th and 37th respectively.
Chopra and Reddy too rise to career-best ranking in mixed doubles
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy continue their inexorable rise in the mixed doubles circuit. The Indian duo saw their runner-up showing at the Scottish Grand Prix effect a jump of four places to reach 18th. This is the first time that either of them is inside the top 20 in any doubles rankings.
In men’s doubles, the Indian pairs of Manu Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Akshay Dewalkar both had a fall to be 23rd and 29th respectively.
