BAC: Sindhu, Prannoy, Doubles pair ousted, India’s campaign ends
This was Sindhu’s first loss against the Chinese shuttler in six meetings.
Two-time Olympic medalist P.V. Sindhu has further slipped three more places to world No. 15 as per the latest women’s singles standings released by the BWF .This is her poorest ranking in last eight years.
The former world No. 2, Sindhu’s ranking has seen a significant dip since the beginning of the year. She started the 2023 season as the world No. 7 but dropped out of the top 10 this April.
The last time Sindhu was outside the top 14 in the women’s singles badminton rankings was way back in April 2013. The former world champion reached her career-best ranking of world No. 2 in April 2017.
The 27-year-old Indian has struggled for form this season since making a comeback after a long injury lay-off following her gold
medal win at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She returned to action at the Malaysian Open and Indian Open this year and suffered first-round exits from both tournaments.
The Hyderabad shuttler was part of India’s bronze medal win at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship 2023 at Doha in February but overall, has been in poor form on the BWF World Tour.
Barring playing in a final at the Madrid Masters and a top four finish at the Malaysia Masters, She has failed to progress beyond
the second round in any of the other seven BWF World Tour tournaments she has played so far this year. Of these, five were first round exits.
Sindhu’s compatriot and Olympic medal-winner Saina Nehwal remained at the 30th position in the singles, followed by Aakarshi
Kashyap (42), Ashmita Chaliha (44) and Malvika Bansod (46).
In men’s singles, HS Prannoy, who won his maiden BWF World Tour title at the Malaysia Masters in May, is still country’s top-ranked player after retaining world No. 8 slot. Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth is in the 20th place just after Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen, who is at 19.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty retained their world No. 3 ranking in the doubles but the women’s doubles pairing of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly slipped down a spot to 17th.
Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy, at world No. 33, are the best-ranked Indian pair in mixed doubles
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