What’s the story?
The latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday saw big jumps for many Indian shuttlers. The newly-formed women’s doubles team of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy has climbed 13 places to reach the 51st position, making the biggest news in the doubles section.
In men’s singles, Sameer Verma keeps on rising and is now placed at a career-best 23rd this week after jumping 11 places. Sameer is now officially the India No. 3 after Ajay Jayaram and HS Prannoy.
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In women’s singles, national champion Rituparna Das too surged five spots to make her top-50 debut at 50th, thus making it three Indians in the top 50 of the women’s singles along with PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal.
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Both Verma and the combination of Ponnappa and Reddy have been putting up consistent results over the past few weeks. Sameer, the younger of the two Verma brothers, made it to his maiden Superseries final at the Hong Kong Open in November and since then, he has been steadily building on that performance.
He started the 2017 season on a winning note by capturing the Syed Modi International title and contributed to India’s win over Singapore at the recently-concluded Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships.
As for Ponnappa and Reddy, they joined forces towards the end of the last season after the former split with her long-time partner, Jwala Gutta. Their combination started producing sparks pretty soon and they made it to the final of the Welsh International last year and the Syed Modi International in January this year.
Apart from that, they notched up a win over Singapore during the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships before narrowly going down to Thailand in three games.
The heart of the matter
Sameer was not the only Indian men’s singles player who had a rise this week. HS Prannoy, who upset the World No. 4 Son Wan Ho in straight games at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships, too was rewarded with a jump of two spots to reach 21st.
Srikanth Kidambi, who has opted for rest after the Syed Modi International, however, plummeted nine rungs to 30th.
In women’s singles, while PV Sindhu remained static at 5th, Saina Nehwal fell one place to 10th.
In mixed doubles, the pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy soared to their career-best 13th ranking while Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa climbed a whopping 40 places to be 98th. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and K Maneesha, meanwhile, stuck to 62nd.
In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy are now 23rd while Tarun Kona-Alwin Francis are 51st, Arjun MR-Shlok Ramchandran are 53rd and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty are 56th.
What’s next?
A hectic part of the season begins for the Indian shuttlers very soon as they embark on the European swing. First up is the German Grand Prix Gold that is scheduled from February 28-March 5 which will be followed by the prestigious All England Championships from March 7-12.
Sportskeeda’s take
With the most important part of the season about to begin, the ranking rise is an encouraging sign for even better things to come for Indian badminton this year.
