Saina, Srikanth slip in BWF Rankings; Sindhu jumps one spot

Saina Nehwal, who has been in a good run of form after returning from injury, suffered a blow on Thursday after going down two places to eighth in the rankings. After returning from an Achilles injury in the All England Championship in March, Saina made it to the quarter-finals in the event before making two back-to-back semi-final appearances in the Swiss Open and India Open. But, Wang Yihan, who finished as runner-up in the Swiss Open, and Sung Ji-Hyun, who won the New Zealand Open GPG, jumped over the 2012 Olympics bronze medallist and took up the sixth and seventh spots to leave the Indian at eighth in the rankings.

In the men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth’s dreadful form in the season has seen him slipping four places to fourteenth in the latest rankings. After starting the season by making it to the semifinals of the Malaysia Masters and winning the Syed Modi GPG back in January, the Guntur lad crashed out in the second round of the German Open and All-England championship before losing in the first round of India Open and Malaysia Open. The Indian is likely to lose more ranking points after two first-round exits in Super Series events.

Chen Long from China is the leader in the men’s singles rankings, followed by India Open champion Kento Momota from Japan in second.

In the women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa remained at 15th in the rankings, while in men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy continued their position at 19th.