Sindhu static at No.3; Saina, Srikanth rise in BWF rankings

New Delhi, July 5 (IANS) Rio Olympics silver medallist P.V. Sindhu continued to be the top-ranked Indian shuttler, after retaining the No.3 spot even as her compatriots Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth rose a few notches in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released here on Thursday.

Saina climbed one spot to No.9 despite crashing out with a straight games defeat to Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in the second round of the Malaysia Open last week.

Rising star Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka rose a couple of places to 53rd while Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli slid six rungs to 78th. South Asian Games gold medallist Ruthvika Shivani Gadde jumped three spots to 90th.

In men’s singles, Srikanth’s semi-final finish at the Malaysia Open hauled him up a couple of spots to fifth.

Srikanth lost his last-four match to the reigning Asian champion Kento Momota, the same player who edged him in the first round of the ongoing Indonesia Open this week as well.

H.S. Prannoy, on the other hand, dropped one spot to 14th while Sameer Verma and B.Sai Praneeth have been placed one after the other at 20th and 21st respectively.

Beyond the top 50, Parupalli Kashyap stayed put at 55th and Lakshya Sen too maintained his 70th position, while Subhankar Dey dropped to 64th.

Sourabh Verma plummeted three places to 77th. Ajay Jayaram, who is on his way back to the circuit after a hamstring injury, slipped to 96th.

In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty plunged two places to 21st. The Indian national men’s doubles champions, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy are now 28th.

In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy stuck to the 26th position. Reddy had better fortunes in mixed doubles, where she soared three places to 21st alongside Pranaav Jerry Chopra.