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The India No. 1 men’s singles shuttler, Srikanth Kidambi jumped one spot to World No. 3 in the latest world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, December 21, 2017. The Pullela Gopichand protégé thus overtook the Olympic champion, Chen Long, who withdrew from last week’s World Superseries Finals in Dubai right before the tournament commenced.
Srikanth could not progress past the group stage in the season finale. The 24-year-old, who returned from an injury hiatus, had his best performance against China’s Shi Yuqi from whom he managed to snatch a game.
Srikanth is not the only Indian men’s singles player to move up in this week’s rankings. Singapore Open winner B Sai Praneeth too climbed a place to 16th. HS Prannoy saw no change and continues to remain 10th.
Outside the top 20, Sameer Verma, Ajay Jayaram and Sourabh Verma are 30th, 38th and 49th respectively. Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap is 54th and Subhankar Dey is 63rd. Harsheel Dani dropped four places to 84th, Abhishek Yelegar too plunged nine rungs to 91st.
In contrast, rising star Lakshya Sen climbed three spots to a career-high 86th. Rahul Yadav Chittaboina too rose to 99th and is now three places shy of his career-best ranking of 96th.
No change for Saina and Sindhu
PV Sindhu, who lost in the final of the Dubai World Superseries Finals, maintains her World No. 3 ranking. Saina Nehwal too holds on to the 10th spot.
Former national champion Rituparna Das is 52nd, Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli is 58th. Tata Open champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, who won a round at the Italian International last week, jumped nine places to 80th.
In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continue to be 31st. National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy are right after them at 32nd.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are 28th. The mixed doubles pair of Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra is static at 18th while the duo of Rankireddy and Ponnappa has surged to 72nd.
