Badminton world rankings: Sindhu drops a place to No 6

Bengaluru, October 1: Badminton World Federation (BWF) world champion PV Sindhu dropped a place to the sixth after a poor run in the last two weeks but former Commonwealth Games (CWG) champion Parupalli Kashyap continued his good run, breaking into the top 25 in the latest ranking BWF rankings on Tuesday (October 1).

Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who made early exits at the China Open and Korea Open BWF Super Series, dropped to world no 6 spot after five months and the former world no 2 shuttler will look to make amends at the Denmark Open and French Open.

Former world no 6, Kashyap was rewarded for his creditable semifinal finish at last week's Korea Open Super 500 Series event as he improved five places to reach the world no 25 spots.

#PVSindhu slipped a place in rankings after early exits at China and Korea Open. https://t.co/IuYhBo0fJa

— Firstpost Sports (@FirstpostSports) October 1, 2019

"I'm feeling good. I need to maintain fitness and keep working hard. Maybe, now top 20 by year-end can be possible," Kashyap was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency.

Meanwhile, 2018 Gold Coast CWG gold-medal winner Saina Nehwal remained static at world No 8 spot despite her opening-round loss at Korea, where she had to battle a stomach ailment.

Among other Indians, Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma improved a place each to occupy the world No 9, 12 and 17th spots respectively.

Thailand Open winners Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty remained at the 12th spot in men's doubles, while Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, who had finished runners-up at the Maldives, gained a spot to reach 19th place.