BWF Rankings: Kidambi Srikanth rises two spots, Sai Praneeth back in top 15

Badminton - Olympics: Day 12
Kidambi Srikanth: On the rise

The India No. 1 men’s singles shuttler Kidambi Srikanth climbed two places to reach the World No. 3 spot in the latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, February 15, 2018. The rise comes after the Pullela Gopichand protégé won three out of his four matches at last week’s Badminton Asia Team Championships, where India reached the quarter-finals.

He is thus one spot shy of matching his career-best ranking of second, which he achieved last year after winning the French Open Superseries.

Singapore Open Superseries winner B Sai Praneeth, who too won three matches at the Badminton Asia Team Championships, saw a rise in his rankings as well. The 25-year-old jumped three places to be 14th.

The Indian national champion HS Prannoy, who is recuperating from a bad foot corn, slipped one spot to 11th. Syed Modi International winner Sameer Verma fell a couple of spots to 44th and Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap also slid a solitary rung to 45th.

Ajay Jayaram is now 48th, Sourabh Verma is 64th and Subhankar Dey is right behind him at 65th.

No change for Saina and Sindhu

There was no change in the rankings for PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. While the former led the Indian women’s team to the quarter-finals, Nehwal had opted out of the competition. Sindhu continues to be fourth and Saina is still 11th.

Tata Open champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, who won the decisive match for India against Hong Kong, was rewarded with a rise of eight places and is now placed at 55th. Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli is 63rd and former national champion Rituparna Das is 69th.

15-year-old Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka continues her phenomenal climb in the rankings chart. The highly talented teenager made it to the semi-finals of the Iran International last week and that has propelled her up by six rungs to a career-high 72nd.

22-year-old Rasika Raje reached the quarter-finals of the same event and is now at her career-best ranking of 94th.

Big jump for Nandagopal and Alwin

Kidambi Srikanth’s elder brother, Nandagopal’s new partnership with Francis Alwin got a great boost last week when they won the Iran International. This was the first team title for Alwin and Nandagopal, who joined forces in November.

The title win hauled them up by a whopping 35 spots to 110th.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are static at 25th, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy too are unchanged at 30th.

In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy dropped a place to 26th. In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Reddy maintain their 21st ranking and so do Ponnappa and Rankireddy, who are at 58th.

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Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee