Riding on his runner-up finish at the Syed Modi International, India’s Sourabh Verma on Tuesday achieved a career-best ranking of world No 29 in the latest Badminton World Federation rankings.
The 26-year-old, who had previously reached world No 30 way back in 2012, claimed two BWF Super 100 titles at Hyderabad and Vietnam earlier this season and also won the Slovenia International series in May.
On Sunday, Verma, a three-time national champion, entered his first final of a Super 300 event at Lucknow before losing to Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei. However, his progress to the summit clash saw him jump seven places and grab the 29th spot.
India was the only country to have six male shuttlers inside the top 30. Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth, who lost in the quarters and second round respectively last week, remained static at world No 12 and 11 respectively. Parupalli Kashyap is at 23, Sameer Verma at 26 and HS Prannoy at 27.
Rising talent Ashmita Chaliha, who had won the Tata Open India International Challenge and Dubai International Challenge last year, also made a massive jump of 18 places to break into the top 100.
The 20-year-old from Guwahati had reached the pre-quarterfinals at Lucknow last week in her only appearance in a Super 300 tournament. She had earlier entered semi-finals of White Nights International challenge in July this year.
There was no change in the ranking of top players PV Sindhu (world No 6) and Saina Nehwal (world No 10), who both had skipped the Syed Modi International.