Sindhu slips to world no. 17, lowest ranking in over a decade

PTI, Jul 18, 2023, 7:08 PM IST

Image credit: PTI / File

Battling an inconsistent form, double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu on Tuesday slipped five places to world number 17 in the latest BWF world rankings.

Ever since returning from a five-month long injury layoff, Sindhu has struggled to string together a series of wins in a week, resulting in a title-less streak this season.

A former world number 2 Sindhu, who had suffered a stress fracture on her ankle during her title-winning run at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, currently has 49,480 points from 14 tournaments.

This is her lowest ranking in over a decade. The last time she was ranked 17th was in January, 2013. She has been inside the top 10 since 2016, having reached a career-best world number 2 in April, 2016.

Sindhu will hope she finds her footing quickly in the Olympic qualification period which ends in April next year, especially after getting the services of Malaysian coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, a former All England champion.

The 2019 World Champion, Sindhu had reached the final of the Madrid Spain Masters, her best finish this season. She registered a semifinal finish at Malaysia Masters and Canada Open but made a quarterfinal exit in the next event at the US Open. She is now in Korea for a super 500 tournament.

HS Prannoy also slipped a place to world number 10, while Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth were static at 12th and 20th spots respectively.

Saina Nehwal slumped five places to world number 36.

Men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty remain India’s best-placed shuttlers at world number 3.

Among others, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also lost a spot to be at the 19th position in women’s doubles, while there was no Indian in the top 25 in mixed doubles.