BWF Rankings: Saina Nehwal back in top 10, Ajay Jayaram climbs 22 spots

Indian shuttle queen Saina Nehwal climbed a spot to get back into the top 10 as the latest world rankings were released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, August 16, 2018. It came about after Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi dropped three places to 13th, pushing Nehwal, Nitchaon Jindapol and Beiwen Zhang one rung up to 10th, 11th and 12th respectively.

World Championships silver medallist PV Sindhu sees no change to her ranking this week and stays put at third.

Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka is 49th, Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli is 72nd and Mugdha Agrey is 86th. Ruthvika Shivani Gadde dropped eight places to 88.

Big jump for Jayaram and Manjunath

In men’s singles, one of the two Indians to make a big move this week is Ajay Jayaram. The former India No. 1 men’s singles shuttler has been rewarded with a big jump of 22 places to 71st, following his run to the final of the Vietnam Open last week.

The 30-year-old, who reached a career-high ranking of 13th last year, has been steadily climbing his way back to the top echelons of the sport after being sidelined for many months due to a hamstring injury. This was his second final on the BWF circuit in three tournaments. He also finished as the runner-up at the White Nights International in July.

The other Indian to rocket up the rankings is Mithun Manjunath. He made it to the semi-finals in Vietnam and has now shot up 26 spots to a career-high 86th.

Meanwhile, the top three Indians remain static at their rankings. Kidambi Srikanth is eighth, HS Prannoy is 11th and Sameer Verma is 21st. Sai Praneeth rose to 23rd while Parupalli Kashyap, Sourabh Verma and Subhankar Dey maintain their 51st, 55th and 61st rankings respectively.

Lakshya Sen has dropped 18 rungs to 96th and RMV Gurusaidutt is placed at 100th.

In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are 22nd and national champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy are 28th. Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are now 30th in women’s doubles.

In the mixed doubles section, there has been no change in the positions for India’s top three pairs. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Reddy are 24th, Rankireddy and Ponnappa are 28th, and Kuhoo Garg and Rohan Kapoor are 35th.