BWF rankings: Satwik-Chirag's storm into world's top 10 players

Indian shuttlers and the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are riding a new high after reclaiming their spot in the top 10 of the badminton rankings. The duo recently reached the finals of the French Open and lost to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia 18-21, 16-21 on the BWF Tour. The Indian pair, that was ranked 11th during the super 750 points event, jumped two spots to be placed 9th in the rankings tally. This is the second time in their career that the duo earned a place in the top 10.

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Chirag and Satwik had created history in August by becoming the first Indian men’s doubles pair to win the BWF Super 500 tournament in Bangkok. They defeated China’s Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen by 21-19, 18-21, 21-18 in the Thailand Open. This win contributed towards them improving their ranking. The pair took their form from Bangkok to the French Open in Paris, where they defeated world champions Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan in the second round. They went on to defeat two more higher-ranked pairs before losing in the final to top seeds, Marcus Fenaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

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Star players tumble

Meanwhile, India’s star players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, who saw their French Open campaign end in the quarter-finals, remained at the sixth and ninth places, respectively. Among other Indian players, Lakshya Sen moved up to No 51 while Shubankar Dey moved to Number 38.

Among the women shuttlers, 17-year-old An Se Young, who has a win over Nehwal, was ranked 11th. Carolina Marin, who has been battling injury for some time, earned a spot in the top 10. The duo faced each other in the title clash of French Open on Sunday with the South Korean scoring a win. Among the Indian male shuttlers, Srikanth Kidambi held his spot in the top 10, while B Sai Praneeth at 11. Sameer Verma moved up a spot to 17th. Parupalli Kashyap was ranked 25th.

Elsewhere, in women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy dropped two spots to 26th. It was good news for mixed doubles pair - Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy, who remained the best-ranked Indian pair at 28. Satwik and Ashwini, however, dropped a place to be ranked 30th.

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