BWF Rankings: PV Sindhu regains 2nd spot; Saina Nehwal at ninth

Rio Olympics and World Championship silver medallist PV Sindhu has jumped to second in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings published on Thursday.

Sidhu had earlier achieved her career-best ranking of World No.2 for the first time in the month April, 2017. She had slipped into the 3^rd position after skipping a few tournaments but regained her place and stayed for two consecutive months last year.

But poor outings and a shocking opening-round exit at the Denmark Open meant, she once again slipped back into number three. And despite winning the silver both at the World Championship and 2018 Asian Games, she was at the third position. But has now climbed into the 2^nd position for the third time in her career.

The 24-year-old is currently participating at the French Open and beat Beiwen Zhang in the opening round. She is only behind Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the rankings.

Likewise, former World No.1 Saina Nehwal, who was runner-up at the Denmark Open and also won a bronze at the Asia Games, jumped a place to be ranked ninth in the women’s singles rankings.

Meanwhile, in the men’s category, Kidambi Srikanth remained at the sixth position, while Sameer Verma jumped five rungs to be placed in the 18^th place. But H S Prannoy, who decided to skip both the Denmark and France Open, slipped two places to be 17th.

B Sai Praneeth remained static at the 26^th place, while Sourabh Verma improved two places to reach the 48^th rank.

Similarly, in the doubles category, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fell one rung down to be placed at the 25^th position, while the women’s combination of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy advanced three spots to be 24th.

Also Read: French Open: PV Sindhu avenge earlier loss against Beiwen Zhang to advance into second round