New Delhi: HS Prannoy, the star India shuttler, witnessed an improvement in his world ranking as he jumped two places to finish seven in the men's singles Badminton World Federation (BWF) ranking. The latest ranking released by the BWF on Tuesday implies Prannoy is now at his career-best ranking. The feat is significant since Prannoy did not win any title in the year that has gone by but has been consistent with his performances which is why he has earned a promotion in the world rankings.
The 30-year-old from Kerala wasn't the only Indian shuttler who saw an improvement in his ranking. Other than him, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also climbed up two spots and are now the world no. 15 women's doubles pair.
Prannoy has 66,147 points to his kitty from 17 tournaments and remains the best placed Indian singles player, followed by double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who improved a spot to be at 11th position in women's singles. Saina Nehal neither showed an improved nor a decline in her rankings as she remains at the world number 36 position. Meanwhile, Malvika Bansod did escalte in the rankings ladder is now world number 40, an improvement from her previous rank of 42.
Prannoy is the only Indian shuttler to remain in top 10 with Lakshya Sen dropping out of the list. Sen, in fact, is now on the 22nd place and has swapped places with Kidambi Srikanth who is now sitting on the 23rd spot.
However, it wasn't all gains and pluses for Indian shuttlers in the latest BWF rankings. The doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty slipped two places to seventh in men's doubles. No other Indian is placed inside the top 20. The latest BWF rankings was released after the Indian mixed team was knocked out from the group stage of the ongoing Sudirman Cup 2023 by Malaysia.
(With Inputs from PTI)