Sindhu drops out of top 10 for first time since 2016 in BWF rankings

Indian shuttler and Olympic medalist PV Sindhu dropped out of the top 10 of the women’s singles Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings for the first time since November 2016.

The two-time Olympic medalist, who had won silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics and bronze in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, fell two places to the 11 spot on Tuesday, as per Olympics.com. Sindhu made it to the top ten for the first time in August 2013 and has been amongst the elite shuttlers worldwide since November 2016. The former world champion’s best ranking is world number 2 as of April 2017.

The 27-year-old has struggled for form this season since her comeback from an injury following her gold medal triumph in the women’s singles competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

She recently parted ways with her South Korean coach, Park Tae-sang, and made her return to the court at the Malaysian Open and Indian Open this year. However, these two outings were extremely forgettable, as she bowed out of both competitions in the first round itself.

She was a part of the bronze medal-winning Indian team at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship 2023 back in February in Doha. Later, she skipped the Thailand Masters, Indonesia Masters, and German Open as well.

Her poor form continued at the All England Open 2023, where she crashed out after the first round after a loss to China’s Zhang Yi Man in straight games. She also failed to defend her women’s singles title at the 2023 Swiss Open, only making it to the second round.

She will be seen in action at the Madrid Masters 2023 on Wednesday, facing Switzerland’s Jenjira Stadelmann in the round of 32. She beat her Stadelmann at the Swiss Open 2023. In the men’s singles competition, HS Prannoy retained his status as the top-ranked player in the country, positioned at number eight in the men’s singles competition, while Kidambi Srikanth slipped to 21 place. The Commonwealth Games champion in men’s singles, Lakshya Sen, is at number 25.

The star Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have solidified their position at world number six after their title win at the Swiss Open 2023. The women’s doubles pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly also kept intact their world number 18 rank.