BAI releases player rankings ahead of Sudirman Cup and Thomas Cup

Selectors will pick the final squads for these tournaments based on these rankings.

As a result of the pandemic, badminton players have been left with negligible international events as well as no domestic tournaments for more than a year now and most of the players are without sufficient match practice.

With the trials for the upcoming Sudirman Cup and Thomas & Uber Cup, held from August 28 to September 1 at Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad, Badminton Association of India (BAI) wanted the shuttlers to be judged on their current form during the trials before finalising the squad. 

While 80 players took part across the four categories of men’s and women’s singles along with men’s and women’s doubles, a robust format was used to judge performances of the players in the absence of any tournaments. The new format also ensured both elite and domestic players are provided with adequate opportunities to prove their mettle.

Based on the rankings, BAI selectors will soon meet to pick the final squad for the Sudirman Cup (10 members) and Thomas & Uber Cup (20 members).

How the new format works,

Men’s singles:

No. of entries: 20

In the group stage, players were divided into eight groups by BAI, four with three players and other four groups with two players in it. Players played against each player in their respective groups in a round-robin format and top players of all eight groups progressed into the next stage—knockouts.

Four winners of the knockout stage were further grouped together as they competed against each other in a round-robin format to decide rankings from 1 to 4. Similarly, losing four players of the knockout stage also grouped together as they fought for the rankings from 5 to 8.

The remaining 12 players from the group stage were divided into four groups by BAI in the next stage and played round-robin matches in their respective groups. Further top players from each group were placed together in a new group as they competed in a round-robin format for rankings from 9 to 12. Second-placed players were grouped together and played against each other to decide rankings from 13-16. Similarly, third-place players fought for rankings from 17-20.    

Women’s singles:

No. of entries: 14

In the group stage, players were divided into the four groups by BAI, two with four players and other two groups with three players each in it. After round-robin matches in the group stage, Top-2 players from each group progressed into the knockout stage.Similar to the men’s singles rankings of Top-8 players were decided after the knockout stage.

The remaining six players from the group stage were divided into two groups with three in each group. After round-robin matches, top players of both the groups played for 9 and 10th ranks while, second-place and third-place players from both groups played against each other to decide 11 to 12 and 13 to 14 rankings respectively.

Men’s doubles:

No. of entries: 13

In the group stage, pairs were divided into four groups, one group with four pairs by BAI while the other three with three pairs each. After competing in a round-robin format in the group stage, top-2 pairs from each group progressed into the knockout stage. Similar to the singles category, Top-8 rankings were decided after the knockout stage.

However, the remaining five pairs from the group stage played in a round-robin format to decide rankings from 9 to 13.

Women’s double:

No. of entries: 10In the group stage, pairs were divided by BAI into two groups with each consisting of five pairs. Matches were played in the round-robin format in the group stage and Top-3 teams from both the groups advanced into the knockout stage.

In the knockout stage, top teams of both the groups played a qualifier match and the winner claimed No. 1 rank. Meanwhile in the eliminator matches for 2-4 ranks, the second-place team from first group played against the third-place team of the second group and the third-place team of the first group played against the second-place team from the second group.

Both the winning teams of the eliminator were placed alongside the losing pair of a qualifier match, as they played round-robin matches to decide rankings from 2 to 4. While, losing teams of the eliminator played against each other for the fifth and sixth ranks.

As per the new format, players/pairs once played against each other in the event will not play again as the result of the previous match will be carried forward in their future matches.

Final rankings are as below,

Ranks	Player names
Men’s singles	Women’s singles	Men’s doubles	Women’s doubles
1	Kiran George	Malvika Bansod	Dhruv Kapila/Arjun MR	Tanisha Crastro/Rituparna Panda
2	Sameer Verma	Aditi Bhat	Krishna Prasad G/Vishnu Vardhan G P	Aswini Ponappa/Sikki Reddy
3	Ajay Jayaram	Tasnim Mir	Sumeeth Reddy B/S Ghouse	Tressa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand
4	Rahul Yadav C	Sruthi Mundada	Arjun George/Sanyam Shukla	Shikha Goutam/Ashwini Bhat
5	Subhankar Dey	Samiya Imad Farooqi	Navneeth B/Sai Krishna Kumar P	Sahithi Bandi/Shruthi
6	Priyanshu Rajawat	Ira Sharma	Ishaan Bhatnagar/Sai Pratheek	Ramya Tulasi/Shivani
7	Sai Charan Koya	Riya Mukherjee	Edwin Joy/Shankar Prasad
8	HS Pronnoy	Ahsmita Chaliha	Anjan B/Ranjan B
9	Karthikeya Gulshan Kumar	Purva Barve	Utkarshi Arora/Shourabh Sharma
10	Mithun M	Unnati Bisht	Vignesh Devlekar/Deep Rambhiya
11	Anasal Yadav	Akarshi Kashyap	Manjith Singh K/Dingko Singh K
12	Sidharth Pratap Singh	Kanika Kanwal	Yash Rikawar/Iman Sonowal
13	Alaap Mishra	Vaidehi Chowdari	Vasantha Kumar HR/Ashith Surya
14	Shankar Prasad M	Mugdha Angre
15	Sidharth Thakur
16	Chirag Sen
17	Satish Kumar
18	Aryaman Tandon
19	Lakshya Sen
20	Varun Kapoor

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