BWF Rankings: Srikanth Kidambi climbs to World No. 2 ranking, HS Prannoy rises as well

Srikanth Kidambi’s stupendous performance in the European swing has been rewarded with a rise to his career-best position in the latest world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday, November 2, 2017. Following his French Open Superseries win last week, the Pullela Gopichand protégé has now jumped two spots to World No. 2.

Srikanth etched his name in record books as the first Indian to clinch the title in Paris since the tournament attained the status of a Superseries event in 2007. It was his fourth Superseries title this year with his other triumphs coming at the Indonesia Open and the Australian Open in June and at the Denmark Open just the week before the French Open.

No other Indian has ever managed to claim as many as four titles at this level before. He also became the first Indian and the second man since Lee Chong Wei in 2012 to emerge victorious in back-to-back events in consecutive weeks twice in a calendar year.

In a span of two weeks, the 24-year-old has now moved up six spots from World No. 8. His previous best ranking was third which he had achieved in August, 2015.

Prannoy too rises to career-best ranking

HS Prannoy, whom Srikanth edged in the semi-finals in Paris, too has climbed to his career-best ranking of 11th and is now knocking on the doors of the top 10.

The Kerala shuttler too performed well in both the European tournaments. After finishing as a quarter-finalist in Denmark, he went one better in the French capital and reached the semi-finals. Prannoy has never been ranked higher than 12th prior to this.

Sai Praneeth, who lost in the second round of the French Open, dropped a solitary rung to 16th while Ajay Jayaram rose one spot to 22nd. Sameer Verma and Sourabh Verma stay put at 18th and 41st respectively. Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap has soared a couple of places to 45th.

Saina, Sindhu static

India’s top two women’s shuttlers remain unchanged in the latest BWF Rankings. French Open semi-finalist PV Sindhu is second and Saina Nehwal is 11th.

2012 French Open runner-up Nehwal was knocked out in the second round by eventual runner-up Akane Yamaguchi, the same player Sindhu later lost to in the last-four stage.

Rankireddy and Shetty break into the top 30

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (in front) and Chirag Shetty continue to do well

The young men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty put on a sensation show at the French Open by stunning the sixth seeds Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark in the second round. Not only that, they even went close to beating the defending champions and second seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen in the quarter-finals, before bowing out, 17-21 in the decider.

Their spirited performance has now hauled them up four spots to a career-high 28th in the latest rankings.

Former India No. 1 pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy is five places below them at 33rd.

In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy plunged two rungs to 25th. Reddy saw no change to her mixed doubles ranking and continues to be perched at 16th alongside Pranaav Jerry Chopra.