Odisha Open champion Unnati Hooda creates record jump of 201 places in BWF world rankings

Unnati Hooda is on a record-breaking spree these days. After becoming the youngest Indian to win a BWF World Tour Super 100 tournament, she created another record on Tuesday.

The 14-year-old made a massive jump of 201 places to reach a career-best world ranking of 217, according to the latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

The Haryana teenager thus became the first Indian shuttler to record a jump of more than two hundred places in the world rankings.

Unnati defeated Smit Toshniwal 21-18, 21-11 in the Odisha Open women’s singles final on Sunday. Before the tournament, she was lying low in the 418th position. However, in the span of just a few days, the Rohtak girl took a giant leap thanks to the whopping 5500 points she bagged for emerging the winner in Cuttack.

With 8900 points, Unnati is now on the verge of breaking into the top-200 in the world rankings in the very first year of playing in senior international tournaments.

Unnati Hooda has reached finals in both international tournaments she has played so far

With her Odisha Open success, Unnati achieved another rare feat. She has played only two international tournaments so far, reaching the finals in both.

On her senior international debut at the Infosys Foundation International Challenge in Bengaluru in October 2021, Unnati stormed into the final.

Her dream debut was spoiled by her fellow Haryana teammate Anupama Upadhyaya on that occasion. Unnati earned 3400 points for her splendid effort that time.

Since Unnati had a poor ranking, she did not get a chance to play at the India Open Super 500 tournament (New Delhi) and Syed Modi International Super 300 tournament (Lucknow). She managed to get entry for the Odisha Open due to the fact that many players opted out because of a COVID-19 scare.

Unnati and Palak Arora improve doubles rankings too

Proving her versatility, Unnati also improved her women’s doubles rankings.

The young Haryana pair of Unnati and Palak Arora reached a career-best world ranking of 185 with a big jump of 84 places. Before the Odisha Open, they were ranked 269th in the world.

The teenage pair's brilliant run was halted by Srivedya Gurazada (India) and Ishika Jaiswal (USA) 21-23, 16-21 in a well-contested quarterfinal.

Odisha Open women’s singles finalist Smit Toshniwal takes big jump

Smit Toshniwal also made a big jump of 39 places to reach 124 in the world rankings with 18550 points to her credit.

Malvika Bansod, who lost narrowly to Unnati in the semifinals of the Odisha Open, jumped six places to attain a career-best world ranking of 61.

Similarly, women’s doubles champions at Cuttack, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela, soared to their career-best ranking of 56 with solid performances in the last couple of weeks.

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BWF Rankings of Indian players (Top 100)

Men’s singles

10. Kidambi Srikanth

13. Lakshya Sen

18. B Sai Praneeth

24. HS Prannoy

26. Sameer Verma

35. Parupalli Kashyap

37. Sourabh Verma

56. Subhankar Dey

66. Ajay Jayaram

75. Kiran George

81. Mithun Manjunath

82. Priyanshu Rajawat

83. Siril Verma

89. Chirag Sen

97. Kaushal Dharmamer

Women’s singles

7. PV Sindhu

25. Saina Nehwal

56. Aakarshi Kashyap

61. Malvika Bansod

62. Ashmita Chaliha

77. Anupama Upadhyaya

86. Samiya Imad Farooqui

87. Ira Sharma

98. Rituparna Das

Men’s doubles

8. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty

39. MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila

41. Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy

50. Krishna Prasad Garaga-Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala

72. Vasantha Kumar HR-Ashith Surya

86. Arun George-Sanyam Shukla

91. Ishaan Bhatnagar-K Sai Pratheek

100. Tarun Kona-Shivam Sharma

Women’s doubles

19. Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy

55. J Meghana-Poorvisha S Ram

56. Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela

60. Pooja Dandu-Sanjana Santosh

66. K Ashwini Bhat-Shisha Gautam

70. K Maneesha-Rutaparna Panda

78. Simran Singhi-Ritika Thaker

Mixed doubles

25. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Ashwini Ponnappa

54. Venkat Gaurav Prasad-Juhi Dewangan

62. MR Arjun-K Maneesha

79. Ishaan Bhatnagar-Tanisha Crasto

91. Dhruv Kapila-N Sikki Reddy

92. Saurabh Sharma-Anoushka Parikh.