Kolkata: Indian badminton of late have been on an uprising surge with new faces putting up good performances on an constant basis, while the senior ones continued to bring laurels to the country. The result of this was evident in the recent Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings where five Indian men shuttlers were present in the top 20, while big names such as PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal maintained their second and 12th rankings in women’s singles.
US Open champion HS Prannoy became the biggest gainer, jumping four places to be ranked at 15th. Kidambi Srikanth who won two Super Series titles this season, that includes the Australia Open and Indonesia Open and also reached the finals of the Singapore Open maintained his eight position to become the highest ranked Indian male shuttler.
Ajay Jayaram who also had a good season remained at the 20th position, while Singapore Open winner B Sai Praneeth stayed put at rank number 17. 22-year-old Sameer Verma who won the Syed Modi International Grand Prix moved up a couple of places to be placed at 19th, while his younger brother Sourabh Verma moved up to 33. Parupalli Kashyap is ranked 46th and Siril Verma has moved up to be ranked 94.
Meanwhile Rio Olympics and World Championships silver medalists PV Sindhu who became the world number two after beating world champion Nozomi Okuhara in the final of the Korean Open successfully maintained her position in the top two.
Another female shuttler Saina Nehwal who won the bronze medal at the London Olympics and World Championships also maintained her position at number 12 in the BWF rankings. Rituparna Das ranked 47 is the next best Indian shuttler in the list.
In the doubles category, the duo of Satwikraj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ranked 32nd remains India’s best ranked shuttler followed by fellow Manu Atri Reddy and B. Sumeeth on 33rd. In the women’s doubles, the 23rd ranked pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy remains India’s top most ranked shuttler.
The pairing of Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra who made their first ever semi-final appearance together in the Japan Open gained two places to be ranked 17th in the mixed doubles category.