Fresh off a finals showing at the Syed Modi International, the Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto have jumped four spots in the BWF world rankings.
The Indian pair notched up quite a few ranking points courtesy their strong run at the home event and now sit at No. 28 with 41,769 points, right behind the Canadian pair of Catherine Choi-Josephine Wu.
The new rankings also came as a new career-high for Ponnappa and Crasto as a team. The former has, however, been ranked inside the top-10 in the past with partner Jwala Gutta.
Following their recent run, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto have also closed the gap between them and the No. 1 ranked Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand — who are currently ranked No. 19 with a total of 49,435 points.
The Chinese pair of Chen Qing and Jia Yi Fan continue to sit atop the women’s doubles ranking with a massive 113,104 points. Koreans Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hee and Kim So Yeong-Kong Hee Yong, and Japanese pairings of Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota and Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida round out the top-5.
Among other Indians, the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty held on to their ranking of No. 2 in men’s doubles. Their total of 90,761 points is around 4,000 short of the Chinese pair Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang’s 94,391.
HS Prannoy remains the highest-ranked player in men’s singles at No. 8, while PV Sindhu leads the Indians in women’s singles at No. 12. Denmark’s Viktor Axelson and Korea’s An Se Young lead the rankings in the two categories respectively.
Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto’s strong run at the Syed Modi International
Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto had a good run last week at the Syed Modi International, posting a few big wins en-route to the final.
The Indian pair opened with wins over countrywomen before running into the more-fancied pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. The duo, however, brushed aside the challenge with ease, winning 21-18, 21-9.
Ponnappa and Crasto then took out the top seeds, Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota, courtesy a retirement. The Indian pair fought valiantly but came up short in the final against another Japanese pair, Rin Iwanaga and Kei Nakanishi, losing 14-21, 21-17, 15-21.