After relinquishing her India No. 1 position briefly, shuttle queen Saina Nehwal is back to being India’s best in the latest BWF rankings released on Thursday. The 26-year-old, who is making a comeback from knee surgery, had slipped out of the top 10 after her first round exit at the China Open, conceding the top spot to PV Sindhu.
But after a couple of weeks of consistent performances, the former World No. 1 is now back as the country’s leading women’s singles shuttler. Nehwal, who reached the quarter-finals of the Macau Open last week, rose a solitary rung to be 9th.
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Meanwhile, skipping the Macau Open after winning it for the last three years cost the Rio Olympic silver medallist Sindhu dearly. She had decided to forego her title defence for some much-needed rest following back-to-back finals at the China Open and the Hong Kong Open, winning the former.
The 21-year-old, who will be seen in action at the Dubai World Superseries Finals next week, dropped three spots to be 10th.
From the rest, the India No. 3 Ruthvika Shivani Gadde remains static at the 49th position. There was, however, a big rise for 18-year-old Shreyanshi Pardeshi. The Indore girl, who made it to the India International final last week, jumped 176 places to grab the 234th spot.
Sai Praneeth rises one place in men’s singles
Having reached the Macau Open quarter-finals, B Sai Praneeth ascended to the 36th spot in this week’s rankings. There hasn’t been a lot of change in rankings for the other Indian men’s singles exponents with most of them having wrapped up their 2016 season.
Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram and Sourabh Verma hold on to 13th, 19th and 43rd respectively. HS Prannoy dropped three places to be 29th while Sameer Verma slipped one rung to be 31st.
Chopra and Reddy keep on flying high
In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy continue their inexorable rise. The Indians made it to the semi-finals of the Welsh International that has triggered a further rise of one spot to their career-best ranking of 17th.
Reddy’s women’s doubles partnership with the highly experienced Ashwini Ponnappa has also gone off to a blazing start. The duo finished as runners-up at the Welsh International which was just their second outing together. The success has shot them up 202 places to 177th.
In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy have gone up to 22nd while Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar are now 30th.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too have had a massive jump of 27 places and are now placed at 93rd. The fast-rising pair won the India International last Sunday just a week after claiming an International Series title.
