What’s the story?
14 Indians made the top 100 of the men's singles for the first time in the latest BWF Rankings released this week, truly underlining the progress of Indian badminton in that discipline. Out of the 14, five have made the top 30 bracket led by India’s No. 1 Ajay Jayaram at 13th. Srikanth Kidambi is next at 22nd with the Singapore Open champion Sai Praneeth being ranked right behind him at 23rd.
Sameer Verma and HS Prannoy are placed at 28th and 29th, rounding up the top 30.
Sameer's elder brother, Sourabh is the only other Indian inside the top 50 at 40th.
In the 50-100 rankings, India have as many as eight male shuttlers. Pratul Joshi is at 68th, Subhankar Dey at 76th, Parupalli Kashyap at 80th, Harsheel Dani at 82nd, Siril Verma at 88th, Abhishek Yelegar at 93rd, Anand Pawar at 94th with Aditya Joshi completing the top 100 at 99th.
In case you didn’t know...
Last week, Anand Pawar made a stunning comeback from a spine injury to win his very first tournament – the Dutch International. The 30-year-old had been out of action for five months due to the injury and his ranking had consequently slipped below 100.
Winning the Dutch International saw him jump 14 ranking spots to be placed 94th.
Similarly, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap too returned to competitive play from his three-month layoff after he suffered a shoulder dislocation while playing at January’s Premier Badminton League.
The former World No. 6 won a round at the China Masters before going down to the eventual runner-up Qiao Bin in three games.
Kashyap made a leap of 23 places courtesy of that win.
The heart of the matter
India’s top women remain unchanged in this week’s BWF rankings. PV Sindhu, who reached the Asian Championships quarter-finals, continues to hold on to her No. 3 ranking while Saina Nehwal remains static at 8th.
National champion Rituparna Das climbed one place to reach 45th.
What’s next?
The next major event for the Indian shuttlers is the Sudirman Cup scheduled to be held at Gold Coast from May 21-28.
Author’s Take
It’s not only Saina and Sindhu who are making waves in Indian badminton circles these days. The historic all-Indian Singapore Open Superseries final between Sai Praneeth and Srikanth Kidambi and this week’s improved rankings prove only one thing – the future is really bright for men’s singles shuttlers.
