agency
NEW DELHI: Failure to defend their individual titles at the India Open Super Series last week cost Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth dearly as the top Indian shuttlers slipped down the order in the latest BWF World rankings on Thursday.
Saina, who had to deal with a nagging ankle injury, lost two places to sink to World No. 8 in women’s singles after losing in the semifinals of India Open, while Srikanth dropped four spots to be placed at the 14th spot in men’s singles.
Srikanth suffered a narrow defeat against China’s Tian Houwei in the opening round here to lose a lot of ranking points. The Indian is likely to slip further when the next ranking list is out after failing to cross the opening hurdle at the ongoing Malaysia Super Series Premier.
Swiss Open champion, H S Prannoy slumped three places to World No. 22 after losing his opening round match against Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in New Delhi.
Ajay Jayaram, who also lost in the opening round, was static at World No. 24.
Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap, whose Rio Olympic qualification dream was crushed by a series of injuries since last year, sunk to World No. 18.
However, PV Sindhu, who had reached the quarter-finals last week, improved a place to be back in the top 10 of women’s singles.
In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy remained at No. 19, while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa too retained their World No. 15 position in women’s doubles.(PTI)
