Emerging Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen has reached a career-best 32nd rank in the men’s singles category in the latest rankings released by the World Badminton Federation (BWF) on Tuesday. Lakshya won the Bangladesh International Challenge title on Sunday (15 December), his fifth title in the tournaments last year. Lakshya reached the finals of a tournament six times during the last 12 months, out of which he has won five titles in the last three months.
India’s 18-year target won the title by defeating Leong Jun Hao of Malaysia 22-20 21-18 in the final in Dhaka. Laskhaya had started the 2019 season winning the runners-up silver medal at Polish Open International Challenge in March. Lakshya won its first title of the year as the Belgium International Tournament in September. He then went on to win the Dutch Open Super 100 in October and the Saralorlux Super 100, followed by the Scottish Open in November.
In men’s singles, B Sai Praneeth and Kidambi Srikanth continue in 11th and 12th positions respectively. Parupalli Kashyap remains at 23rd place followed by HS Prannoy (26th), Saurabh Verma (28th), Sameer Verma (33rd) and Shubhankar Dey (44th).
Among the women’s singles, Olympic medalists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal retained the sixth and 11th positions respectively. Both Saina and PV Sindhu have not had a very great season. Saina had a tough second half-season as she lost five of her last six tournaments in the opening round itself. On the other hand, the only high Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu saw this year was when she became the first Indian to win badminton World Championships gold in August.
No Indian pair is in the top 10 in men’s doubles. The pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty finished 12th.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy are the top pair of India with 33rd place. In mixed doubles, Pranav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy remain at 28th position while Satwik and Ashwini are ranked 36th after losing one place.
Related posts:
