Srikanth, Kashyap drop a place each in rankings

Kuala Lumpur, Dec 17: India’s Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap dropped a place each to be ninth and 15th, respectively, in the world badminton rankings released on Thursday.

Srikanth performed poorly at the World Superseries Fils in Dubai last week, losing all the group stage games, while 2014 Commonwealth Games (CWG) champion Kashyap dropped as south Korea’s Lee Hyun Il jumped three places to be 12th after his title win at the K&D Graphics Grand Prix in California.

Another shuttler H.S. Prannoy remained at No.20, while Ajay Jayaram moved up a place to be 22nd in the rankings which continued to be topped by Chi’s Chen Long. But there was no movement for Sai Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu in women’s singles, who stayed at No.2 and 12 respectively. Likewise in women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponppa remained at No.13.

But the top 10 in the women’s singles witnessed a lot of movement with Chi’s Yihan Wang jumping four places to be fourth after her runner-up finish at Superseries Fils. Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, who beat Yihan in the fil in Dubai, was rewarded with a jump of two places to be seventh. Thailand’s former world champion Ratchanok Intanon too moved two places up to be fifth after her semi-fil appearance in Dubai. South Korean Sung Ji Hyun and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying dropped four places each to be eighth and ninth respectively. IANS