Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen has climbed up nine places to a career-best 32nd spot among men’s singles players in the Badminton World Federation rankings issued on Tuesday.
Sen achieved the feat by winning the title at the Bangladesh International Challenge on Sunday, his fifth of the year and all of them coming in the last seven tournaments he has taken part in.
The 18-year-old Indian defeated Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao 22-20 21-18 in the summit clash to clinch the title in Dhaka.
Sen had won his first title of the year at the Belgian International in September and followed it up with wins at Dutch Open Super 100 and SarrLorLux Super 100 in October before claiming the Scottish Open crown in November.
However, there was no further movement in the men’s singles chart with B Sai Praneeth and Kidambi Srikanth remaining static at 11th and 12th spots respectively.
Parupalli Kashyap remained at 23rd, followed by HS Prannoy (26th), Sourabh Verma (28th), Sameer Verma (33rd) and Subhankar Dey (44th).
Among the women singles players, Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are static at the sixth and 11th positions, respectively. The biggest rise in the category came from upcoming talent Ashmita Chaliha. After her gold medal at the South Asian Games, the Assamese teenager has now risen 13 places to be placed 83rd in the world.
Meanwhile, there is a new world No 1 among the women’s singles shuttlers with China’s Chen Yufei capping off a fabulous year with the title at BWF World Tour Finals, winning her seventh title from seven finals.
No Indian features in the top 10 of the men’s doubles chart with the duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chriga Shetty moving up one place to the 12th spot.
In women’s doubles, the top Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are placed 33rd.
In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy are static at 28th spot, while the pair of Rankireddy and Ponappa has dropped a rung to 36th position.
(With PTI inputs)