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Saina Nehwal climbed her way back to the top 10 in the latest world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Friday, February 2, 2018. Her fabulous campaign at last week’s Indonesia Masters, where she reached the final, pushed her up two spots to 10th.
The former World No. 1 was last ranked 10th in January this year. But opting to not defend her Malaysia Masters title after a hectic Premier Badminton League season saw her slipping out of the elite bracket.
She didn’t have to wait long to get back there. At the Indonesia Masters the following week, she accounted for three top-10 players before losing to the World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the summit clash. Saina, who is currently in the quarter-finals of the India Open, is aiming to reach the final of a Super 500 event for a second consecutive week.
PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth slide
However, the other top Indian shuttlers had contrasting fortunes. The ranking points that PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth accumulated from the 2017 Syed Modi International came off this week and that effected a fall in their rankings.
While the Syed Modi International champion Sindhu is now fourth, Srikanth is down to fifth. HS Prannoy slipped a solitary rung to 11th, Sai Praneeth nosedived to 18th.
Syed Modi International men’s singles winner Sameer Verma too plummeted 11 places to 41st. Ajay Jayaram stayed put at 44th and Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap rose three places to 52nd.
Former national champion Sourabh Verma is down to 60th and Subhankar Dey is currently 64th.
On the women’s side, former national champion Rituparna Das plunged eight spots to 62nd. Tata Open champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde stayed static at 79th.
Meanwhile, rising star Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka continues her inexorable rise as she climbed seven spots to reach a career-high 82nd. She finished as the runner-up to Saili Rane at the Iceland International last week.
Rane too jumped seven rungs after her win and is now placed at 94th.
Rankireddy and Shetty jump five places
The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was rewarded with a jump of five places to a career-high 27th after a sizzling run to the semi-finals at the Indonesia Masters last week. They beat two top-10 pairs and one top-20 team en route to the last-four.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy’s ranking too suffered due to deduction of points from their 2017 Syed Modi International campaign, where they made it to the final. Ponnappa and Reddy slid seven rungs to 31st.
Similarly, Syed Modi International mixed doubles champions Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra had a massive fall and are now at 24th.
