BWF World Rankings: India’s Lakshya Sen climbs up to career-best eighth

Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen moved up a place in the latest men’s singles BWF World Rankings released on Tuesday to reach a career-best eighth position in  the standings. 

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, meanwhile, stayed sixth in the women’s singles world rankings while Saina Nehwal, who has struggled with fitness this year, dropped two places to be ranked world No. 32. 

In men’s singles, world championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth held on to his world No. 11 spot. The in-form HS Prannoy, who recently became world No. 1 in BWF World Tour 2022 Rankings, climbed up a spot to be ranked 13th.

Lakshya Sen has been in top form since winning the bronze medal at the BWF World Championships in December last year. He was ranked outside the top 20 at the time.

The Indian shuttler broke into the top 10 in the following months after winning the India Open BWF Super 500 tournament in January and a silver at the All England Open BWF Super 1000 tournament in March. 

Sen caused some massive upsets at the All England Open before losing to the world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the final. Lakshya Sen also reached the final of the German Open Super 300 event and helped India win their maiden Thomas Cup title in May this year. 

In August, Lakshya Sen won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham but failed to match his performance at the 2022 badminton world championships in Tokyo, where he was eliminated in the round of 16.

India’s top men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy stayed eighth in the standings while MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila moved up two places to achieve a career-best ranking of world No. 21.

In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are ranked 23rd. In mixed doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar are India’s top-ranked pair at world No. 31.