Picture Credit: Twitter
Indians have made solid progress in the latest edition of the BWF Rankings. Particularly notable rise were HS Prannoy, who moved up from 10th to 9th, and Lakshya Sen, who went up from 13th to 11th. The ranking increase comes as a result of solid performances at the Japan Open Super 750 tournament. Former world number 1 Kidambi Srikanth also moved up, from 20th to 19th.
Also Read: HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu sail into Round of 16 in Australian Open 2023
One of the notable leaps in the rankings came from Mithun Manjunath, who climbed up four places to 50th rank. For women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand moved up two spots from 19th to 17th in the world. Overall, Indian badminton players have made strong progress in the latest BWF rankings and will hope for even better performances and results as the season continues. In particular, the Rankireddy-Shetty duo will look to try, and grab hold of the World No. 1 spot. The pair had a chance to do so with a win at the Japan Open but were unable to clinch it as their winning streak in 2023 came to an end at the hands of Olympic medallists Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lan of Taiwan.
PV Sindhu falls to no. 17 spot after poor season
The Indian badminton legend has held onto her number 17 spot, which she dropped to in the last rankings from 16th place. The player had gone into this season ranked 7th in the world in women’s singles, but has now dropped ten places. This was also the first year since 2013 that the 28-year-old has been ranked outside the world’s top 16 players.
Sindhu has struggled with form this year, ever since her gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and subsequent injury. She returned to badminton at the Indian and Malaysian Opens but faced early round exits from both tournaments. Despite winning bronze at the Asia Mixed Team Championship 2023 in Doha in February, she has not had great form at tournaments. Out of 11 BWF tournaments in the year, Sindhu has exited five in the first round and two in the second round.
The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the final appearance at the Madrid Masters where she lost to Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.
