BWF Rankings: Sai Praneeth drops three places, Lakshya Sen breaks into top 70

With 2017 Thailand Open points dropping this week, last year’s champion B Sai Praneeth slipped three places to 21st in the latest world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, June 7, 2018.

The 25-year-old faced some struggle to maintain his consistency post his success at the Singapore Open and the Thailand Open in 2017. But in recent few weeks, the Pullela Gopichand protégé has been showing a lot of resurgence.

He reached the semi-finals of the New Zealand Open and followed it up with a run to the quarter-finals in Sydney last month. That had pushed him up to 18th in the world rankings.

Sai will next be seen in action at the Malaysia Open, starting June 26. He has drawn World No. 15 Wang Tzu Wei in the first round of this Super 750 tournament.

With Sai’s drop in the rankings, Swiss Open champion Sameer Verma has now become the new India No. 3 after Kidambi Srikanth (fourth) and HS Prannoy (eighth). Sameer has risen a solitary rung to 19th this week.

2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap has plunged a couple of spots to 42nd.

Dey and Sen rise

Beyond the top 50, Subhankar Dey and Lakshya Sen have both soared three places to 64th and 69th respectively. Former national champion Sourabh Verma has plummeted seven spots to 71st.

For the young Sen, this is his career-best ranking. The 16-year-old Sen recently took a game off the two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in two consecutive meetings.

No change for Sindhu and Saina

India’s top two women’s shuttlers, PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal haven’t had any change in their rankings this week. Sindhu continues to be the top-ranked Indian at third and the Commonwealth Games champion Nehwal is at 10th.

Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka is 52nd, followed by Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli at 63rd. The Tata Open champion Ruthvika Shivani Gadde had a massive fall of nine spots to 72nd.

In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty maintain their 18th position. National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy have risen to No. 21.

The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are static at 28th. In mixed doubles, the India No. 1 pair of Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra are 20th while national champions Ponnappa and Rankireddy are 57th.