BWF World Rankings: Big jump for Lakshya Sen, PV Sindhu rises

Junior World No. 1 Lakshya Sen made a big leap of 29 places after winning the Eurasian Bulgarian Open 2017 International Series title last week. The 16-year-old is now perched at his career-best ranking of 138th following that triumph.

This was the second International Series crown of Sen’s fledgling career. The Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy product won the Sats India International Series in November last year.

Srikanth drops two places

Meanwhile, the men’s singles India No. 1 Srikanth Kidambi has dropped two rungs to 10th. The former World No. 3 is in action at the ongoing World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland this week.

There was no change in ranking for the next four Indian men. HS Prannoy remains at 15th, Ajay Jayaram continues to be 17th and so do B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma at 19th and 29th respectively.

While Verma’s campaign has already ended at the World Championships, Sai Praneeth and Jayaram are still in the hunt.

Sameer’s elder brother Sourabh has risen one spot to 31st and Parupalli Kashyap is static at 46th to round off the top 50.

Sindhu rises

In women’s singles, PV Sindhu has gained one spot to be fourth. She is now two places away from matching her career-best ranking of second.

The 22-year-old is aiming for her third medal from the World Championships this week to add to the two bronze she won in 2013 and 2014.

The 2015 World Championships runner-up Saina Nehwal, meanwhile, maintains her 16th spot in the rankings.

Saina has an early threat in the form of the second seed Sung Ji Hyun in her quest to win her second medal.

National champion Rituparna Das has surged one spot to be 45th.

Ponnappa and Reddy go up

In women’s doubles, the India No. 1 team of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are now at 24th after jumping one spot. The pair put up a valiant effort before losing to the second seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen, 22-24, 21-17, 15-21 in the second round.

In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy plunged to 32nd while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty remain stuck at 38th. Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran are still at 42nd.

All of them have already crashed out of the ongoing World Championships.

The mixed doubles combine of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy holds on to 20th. They are the only Indian doubles team still alive in the draw at Glasgow.