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The latest world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, October 25, 2018 proved to be favourable for India’s top shuttle queens as both PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal moved up. Sindhu rose one spot to equal her career-best world ranking of No. 2 while Nehwal surged a solitary spot to No. 9.
Sindhu was last ranked No. 2 in November of last year. The 23-year-old crashed out in the first round of the Denmark Open last week but the rise was still possible as Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi dropped a rung following her second round defeat to Nehwal in Odense.
Nehwal made it to the final of the Denmark Open, which was the best performance by an Indian shuttler last week. Thanks to that stunning performance, she amassed 9350 points, which allowed her to exchange ranking spots with Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun.
A lot of shuffling in the women’s singles top 10 took place after the Denmark Open. Apart from the above-mentioned shuttlers, Carolina Marin, Nozomi Okuhara, and He Bingjiao also moved up to fourth, sixth, and seventh respectively. Due to her failure in defending her 2017 title, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon slid a couple of spots to eighth while China’s Chen Yufei too slipped to fifth.
Srikanth stays at sixth
In men’s singles, India’s Kidambi Srikanth was unable to defend his Denmark Open crown and had to be content with just a semi-final finish after bowing out to World No. 1 and eventual champion Kento Momota. That, however, could not do any harm to his ranking as he still managed to stay at the sixth position in this week’s rankings.
HS Prannoy, who did not participate at the Denmark Open, dropped two places to 17th. Sameer Verma is the big mover among the top Indian men as he climbed up five rungs to 18th as a reward for his reaching the quarter-finals in Odense.
Sameer’s elder brother, Sourabh too soared a couple of spots to 48th while Sai Praneeth remained static at 26th.
In men’s doubles, the pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Manu Attri-Sumeeth Reddy are placed at the 25th and the 29th positions respectively.
Following their colossal victory over the then-seventh-ranked pair of Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan, India’s top women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy jumped up three spots to 24th.
In mixed doubles, Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra maintain their No. 21 ranking. Ponnappa and Rankireddy too see no change in their ranking and continue to be 33rd.
