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The 2018 Badminton Asia Championships had a positive effect on the world rankings of most of the top Indian shuttlers. By dint of their bronze medal-winning performances in Wuhan, both Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy climbed a couple of places in the latest world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, May 3, 2018.
Riding on the 6420 points she gained last week, the former World No. 1 is now back in the top 10 at the 10th position, having exited the elite bracket in January. Nehwal put up a scintillating performance at the continental championships before bowing out to Tai Tzu Ying in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Prannoy erased his Commonwealth Games setback to grab his first medal -- a bronze -- from the Asian Championships and that has hauled him up two rungs to a career-high eighth. The Kerala shuttler upset the second seeded Son Wan Ho on his way to the last-four stage, where he lost to the Olympic champion Chen Long.
Srikanth also rises, no change for Sindhu
Kidambi Srikanth too rose a couple of spots to third. The former World No. 1 suffered a quarter-final defeat at the hands of two-time champion Lee Chong Wei.
Asian Championships quarter-finalist PV Sindhu, however, saw no change in her rankings and she maintains her third position.
B Sai Praneeth, who won a round at the same tournament, too climbed one spot to 18th. Sameer Verma failed to cross the first hurdle, but managed to rise three places to 26th.
Among others, Parupalli Kashyap is 37th, Sourabh Verma is 57th, Subhankar Dey is 63rd. Former India No. 1 men’s singles shuttler Ajay Jayaram, who is on the comeback trail after a hamstring injury, plunged 29 rungs to 106th.
In the women’s singles section, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde rose a solitary spot to 54th. Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli dropped two places each to 64th and 66th respectively.
In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are static at 18th while Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy have risen to 32nd. Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran too have moved in the upward direction in the latest world rankings and are now placed at 43rd.
Commonwealth Games bronze medal-winning women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy have slipped one spot to 26th. In mixed doubles, Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra nosedived two places to 23rd while national champions Ponnappa and Rankireddy climbed to 52nd.
