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The performances at last week’s Orleans Masters pushed both Sameer Verma and Parupalli Kashyap up in the new world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, April 5, 2018. Verma climbed eight spots to be placed at 29th while Kashyap surged a couple of places to 40th.
Verma was the top seed at this Super 100 tournament held in France and was very much a title favourite. The 23-year-old, however, fell to the fourth seed and eventual champion Mark Caljouw in the semi-finals.
With that, the Pullela Gopichand protégé’s eight-match winning streak came to an end. He had earlier triumphed at the Swiss Open last month.
Meanwhile, Kashyap succumbed to the third seed and eventual runner-up Rasmus Gemke in the quarter-finals. The 2014 Commonwealth Games champion too had made a bright start to the 2018 season by winning the Austrian Open in February.
There was no change in rankings for the top shuttlers. Kidambi Srikanth continues to be comfortably perched at the second position. HS Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth maintain their 12th and 15th spots respectively.
Outside the top 50, Ajay Jayaram rose a place to 55th, Sourabh Verma too climbed one rung to 58th. Subhankar Dey plunged four spots to 66th while Rahul Yadav Chittaboina had a huge rise of 11 places to reach a career-high 89th.
No change for Sindhu and Saina
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal too had no change in their rankings this week. Sindhu remains at the third position and Nehwal continues to be 12th.
Ruthvika Shivani Gadde is still 55th while Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli and Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka each dropped three places to 64th and 65th respectively. Mugdha Agrey soared 12 places to a career-best ranking of 94th.
Big jump for Nandagopal and Francis
In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty are 21st and Manu Attri-Sumeeth Reddy are 34th. The pair of Kidambi Nandagopal and Francis Alwin made a big jump of 22 places to reach 69th after making it to the quarter-finals of the Orleans Masters last week.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy are 26th. The mixed doubles pair of Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra surged a solitary rung to 23rd. Ponnappa and Rankireddy are static at 57th.
