Satwik-Chirag achieve career-best world no. 5 rankings, Prannoy back in top 10

New Delhi: The Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached a career-best world number five while HS Prannoy regained his place in the top 10 in men’s singles in the BWF world rankings issued on Tuesday.

Satwik and Chirag have been on a stellar run this year with two world tour titles at Indian Open Super 500 and French Open Super 750 and also claimed a maiden gold at the Commonwealth Games and a bronze at the World Championships.

Their unprecedented success reflected in the ranking as the duo jumped two places to the top five with 75,806 rating points from 15 tournaments.

Prannoy, too, made gains in the latest ranking as he once again broke into the top 10, grabbing the world number 9 place after starting the year at world number 26.

The 30-year-old from Kerala, who had first cracked the elite bracket in 2016, dished out some memorable performances in the season with seven quarterfinals, two semifinals and a runner-up finish at the Swiss Open.

He also shepherded the Indian team to a historic Thomas Cup win in Bangkok but an individual title eluded him. His consistent run, however, was enough to earn him a place in the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals and a nomination for the BWF Player of the year award.

Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen continued to be the best-placed Indian at number seven while former world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth gained a rung to the 11th position.

Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu continued to hold on to the number six position in women’s singles while the women’s doubles combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, who had won a bronze in Birmingham, climbed two places to world number 18.

In mixed doubles, Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto also jumped three places to reach the 21st spot.