Satwik-Chirag lose World No. 1 position; Kidambi Srikanth drops down to WR 32

Satwik-Chirag have dropped to the third rank in the latest BWF rankings.

India’s ace doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who held the World No. 1 position in the BWF rankings for the last two weeks, fell two places to occupy the third position, as per the latest list released by the BWF on Tuesday (June 11).

The pair, known as the ‘Brothers of Destruction’, had regained the top spot in May by winning the Thailand Open. But they were stunned in the first round of the Singapore Open the very next week, losing to the WR #34 Danish pairing of Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard.

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By withdrawing from the Indonesia Open held last week, where they would have entered as the defending champions, the duo suffered a huge loss in points, resulting in the dip in rankings.

They have been replaced at the top by the Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, while the Danish pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen jumped two places to occupy the second position.

Satwik-Chirag will not be playing the Australian Open too, this week. It is worth noting that the pair have not been in their best form since April, with Rankireddy battling shoulder injury concerns.

Former world number #1 Kidambi Srikanth has dropped out of the top 30, falling four places, to be ranked #32 in the world. The veteran has been battling poor form, reaching the quarterfinals only once in 10 attempts this year. This includes six first round exits, including one in the Singapore Open. He too had withdrawn from the Indonesia Open.

Olympic bound shuttlers HS Prannoy (WR #10) and Lakshya Sen (WR #14) retained their positions in the chart. While Prannoy lost to compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat (who continues to be at WR #34) in the first round of the Indonesia Open, Sen reached the quarterfinals before going down fighting against Dane Anders Antonsen, who is currently ranked #4 in the world.

In women’s singles, PV Sindhu too retained her position in the latest rankings. The icon, who is ranked number #12 in the world, suffered a shock first round defeat to Chinese Taipei shuttler Wen Chi Hsu at the Indonesia Open. This is Sindhu’s last tournament, before she heads to Paris for the Olympic Games. India’s second-best ranked player in the category Aakarshi Kashyap remains as WR #41.

In women’s doubles, the Olympic bound duo of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa rose a place to WR #19. They had reached the second round of the Indonesia Open, going down in three games against world number #2 Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of South Korea.

The duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand too rose a place. The now WR #24 pair have been in good form recently, having defeated two top-10 pairs enroute to the semifinals of the Singapore Open.

In mixed doubles, Satish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadhya Variyath remain India’s higher ranked shuttlers at WR #37, while the husband-wife pairing of B. Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy rose six places, to WR #39, following a second-round finish at the Indonesia Open.

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