After finishing in the last 4 of the recently concluded China Open, India’s duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty climbed 3 spots to return to top 10 in the BWF mens’ doubles World Rankings released on Tuesday. The former world No. 1 duo are now 10th in the list after their semifinals loss to the Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik 13-21, 17-21.
With the latest defeat, Satwik-Chirag lost thrice in a row against the world No 2 duo from Malaysia. It appeared once more that the pair that tormented them for so long, are back to being their nemeses, especially considering the heartbreak that Chia and Soh gave at the Paris Olympics last year.
“We had our chances, especially in the second game,” Chirag had told BWF later, but he too was aware they didn’t do enough. “But (overall we) were not playing the right game. We were playing strokes which we shouldn’t have, hitting more on Aaron and I think that’s what took the game away from us. When we started playing smarter at 12-16, we came back at 16-16. A good tournament for us, but sad that we had to go out this way.”
This was the India duo’s third semifinal appearance on the BWF Tour this season, having earlier reached the last four at the Singapore Open and India Open. The Indian pair had reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking after the title win at the Thailand Open last year.
In men’s singles, top-ranked Indian Lakshya Sen moved up two places to No. 17 with 54,442 points, just ahead of China’s Zhenxiang Wang, who jumped five spots to 18. HS Prannoy also climbed two places to reach world No. 33 with 40,336 points.
In women’s singles, 17-year-old Unnati Hooda rose four spots to a career-best No. 31 after her landmark pre-quarterfinal win over double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu last week. The Haryana shuttler stunned Sindhu 21-16, 19-21, 21-13 in a gruelling hour-and-13-minute battle to reach the quarterfinals, where she lost to third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.
Sindhu, meanwhile, remained static at No. 15 and continues to be the highest-ranked Indian in women’s singles. In women’s doubles, India’s top pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand held steady at No. 11, while Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa moved up two spots to 45.
(With agency inputs)
