After their first final appearance at a Super 750 level event on the BWF World Tour, India’s promising doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reclaimed a spot in the top 10 of the latest badminton rankings issued on Tuesday.
Satwik-Chirag on the rise: A look at the top performances by the Indian doubles pair in 2019
The pair, who were ranked 11th during their run to the French Open final, jumped two places in the latest rankings to be placed ninth, featuring in the top 10 for the second time in their career.
Satwik and Chirag, who created history in August by becoming the first Indian men’s doubles pair to win a BWF Super 500 tournament, had moved up to ninth after their title-winning run in Bangkok. They had stunned the then reigning world champions Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen of China 21-19, 18-21, 21-18 in the Thailand Open final to achieve the feat.
Watch: Stunning 50-shot rally in Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty’s French Open semis win
In Paris last week, the young Indian pair defeated the current world champions Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan in the second round, before defeating two more higher-ranked pairs and eventually losing in the final to the top seeds, Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fenaldi Gideon.
In the other categories, there was not much movement for the Indian shuttlers. In women’s singles, PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal remained at the sixth and ninth places respectively. Both the star players saw their campaign in Paris come to an end in the quarter-finals stage. Rising star Lakshya Sen moved up a place to No 51 while Shubankar Dey, who beat Tommy Sugiarto in Paris, climbed four places to No 38.
Elsewhere, among the women shuttlers, 17-year-old An Se Young moved up 11th in the world after pathbreaking run to the title (which included a win over Nehwal) while the incredible Carolina Marin was back in the top 10 after her long absence due to injury. The two had contested in the title clash on Sunday with the South Korean triumphing.
Among the male shuttlers, Srikanth Kidambi held on to his spot in the top 10, while B Sai Praneeth remained a place below him at No 11. Sameer Verma gained a spot to move up to 17th as did Parupalli Kashyap, who moved back up to 25th.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy fell out of the top-25, dropping two spots to be placed 26th. In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy remained the best-ranked Indian pair at No 28 while Satwik and Ashwini dropped a place to be ranked 30th.