BWF World Rankings: Kidambi Srikanth officially becomes World No 1 

On Thursday, as the official BWF World Rankings were released, Kidami Srikanth overtook Denmark's Viktor Axelsen to become the Wolrd No. 1. He thus became India's first ever male shuttler to have been officially placed at the top of the World Rankings, adding yet another feather to his already illustrious cap.

Previously, former Prakash Padukone was regarded as the world No 1 in 1980, although the ranking system was not official back then.

Axelsen, who fell down to second, lost at least 1,660 points for not being able to defend his Malaysian Open title. The Danish shuttler sustained an ankle injury during the Indonesia Masters in January and had to undergo surgery. Thus, he had to pull out of the India Open and the All England Open as well as the European Team Championships.

Axelsen's loss, though, was Srikanth's gain. The Andhra Pradesh shuttler had achieved the World No. 2 ranking in November after winning four Super Series titles – Indonesia, Australia, Denmark and France last year. However, the 25-year old had missed out on the chance to become No. 1 in the world year after suffering an injury.

Making a comeback from injury, Srikanth's performance this year has not been up to the mark. He crashed out in the pre-quarters at the India Open as well as the All England Open. However, at the Commonwealth Games, he led the Indian team to their maiden gold medal haul in the mixed team event. In the final, he beat Malaysian legend and World No 7 Lee Chong Wei for the first time in his career.

Interestingly, Srikanth's feat comes exactly three years after Saina Nehwal became the World No. 1. On April 2, 2015, Saina had achieved the ranking just after winning the India Open.

In other news, HS Prannoy climbed up one rung to be ranked World No. 11 after a good showing at the All England Open. In Women's Singles, PV Sindhu continues to be placed at World No. 3 while Saina Nehwal maintains her ranking of 12.