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India’s top men’s singles shuttler Kidambi Srikanth slipped one rung to sixth in the latest world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, July 26, 2018. The fall was a result of Chou Tien Chen rising a couple of spots to fifth after clinching the Singapore Open last Sunday.
Srikanth’s last tournament was the Indonesia Open, where he succumbed to a first round defeat to the reigning Asian champion, Kento Momota. He will next be seen in action at the World Championships next week.
HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma maintain their 11th and 19th positions respectively. B Sai Praneeth exited the top 25 this week and is now placed at 26th following his failure to defend the Singapore Open title that he had won last year. Sai suffered a shock first round loss at the Singapore Open this time.
While former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap moved up a couple of spots to 46th, Subhankar Dey climbed five places to 62nd.
But the biggest Indian mover in men’s singles was Sourabh Verma. The former Indian national champion accounted for Kashyap in the first round of the Singapore Open. That performance hauled him up by a whopping 13 places to 65th. Ajay Jayaram dropped a solitary spot to 72nd to round off the top 100.
Saina, Sindhu static; youngsters rise
In women’s singles, there was no change for India’s top two female superstars -- PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. While the former continues to be the highest ranked Indian at third, the latter holds on to her 10th position.
Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka dropped two places to exit the top 50 and is now at 52nd. Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli surged eight places to 69th after reaching the final of the Lagos International. The youngster was edged by Ksenia Polikarpova 22-20, 16-21, 25-27 in a riveting final.
She was not the only rising star, whose ranking soared this week. South Asian Games gold medallist Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also rose 14 places to 76th following her second round appearance at the Singapore Open.
Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka and Rituparna Das also moved up to 100 and 132 respectively.
Rankireddy and Ponnappa reach highest ranking as a team
In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Ranikireddy and Chirag Shetty plummeted to 25th. The two are having a rough few weeks and tumbled out of the Singapore Open in the second round, despite being the second seeds.
National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy’s triumph at the Lagos International could not help their rankings. Instead, they dropped to 29th in the latest world rankings.
The women’s doubles combine of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy remains stuck to 28th. In mixed doubles, Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra soared to 22nd while Ponnappa and Rankireddy have made a big jump of eight places to their highest ranking of 39th as a team. Youngsters Kuhoo Garg and Rohan Kapoor climbed up three places to 45th.
