India’s PV Sindhu surged two places to world No 2 in the Badminton World Federation rankings for women’s singles on the back of her title triumph at the Korea Open Superseries on Sunday. This is the second time she has reached the mark after April this year when she won the India Open.
Sindhu’s victory in Seoul was her second Superseries title this year, along with a second-place finish at the world championships in Glasgow in August. However, some of Sindhu’s celebration may be tempered with the pain of a second-round elimination at Nozomi Okuhara’s hands, coincidentally her opponent at the last two tournaments, at the ongoing Japan Open on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal remained at No 12 in the rankings, while Rituparna Das moved up two places to No 44. In the men’s singles rankings, K Srikanth stayed at No 8 while B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy moved one place down to No 17 and No 19 respectively.
Ajay Jayaram also moved three places down to No 20 but there was joy for Sameer Verma who moved four places up to No 21. Sourabh Verma and Parupalli Kashyap are also within the top 50, at No 35 and No 43, respectively.
But India’s biggest movers in the rankings were the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who jumped up seven places and are currently ranked world No 32 on the back of their quarter-final finish at the Korea Open.
In the women’s doubles category, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy moved up two places to the No 23 rank. Two other Indian pairs are also in the top 50, with Sanjana Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil ranked 36th and Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram ranked 42nd.
In the mixed doubles rankings, India’s top-ranked pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy moved one place to the 19th rank while B Sumeeth Reddy and Ponnappa moved a place down to No 48.
Do you prefer your favourite sports stories delivered straight to your inbox every weekday? We have got you covered. Subscribe to The Field’s newsletter.