The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty created history on Tuesday, as they became the first ever pair from the country to attain the World No. 1 spot. The duo achieved the feat after they won the men’s doubles competition at the Asian Games, last week. Prior to them, only three Indians had achieved the feat — Prakash Padukone, Saina Nehwal, and Kidambi Srikanth.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty World no. 1
The Indian duo dethroned Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Adrianto to become the top-ranked team in the world, as per the BWF rankings. They have a total of 92,411 points, 2000 clear of the next-best team. They had beaten the South Korean pair of Sol Gyu Choi and Won Ho Kim in the final of the Asian Games to reach the top of the rankings.
Prior to Satwik-Chirag, the only other Indian pairs to make notable gains in the BWF rankings were V Diju/ Jwala Gutta, and Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa. The mixed doubles pair had once become the WR-6 in the world, while the latter had a career-best ranking of 10 as partners.
Other than Satwik-Chirag, the rest did not fare well in this week’s rankings. HS Prannoy, despite winning the bronze medal at the Asian Games, slipped a rung to WR-8. Lakshya Sen dropped further to WR-14, while Kidambi Srikanth gained a spot to be WR-20.
PV Sindhu Moves Closer to Top 10
Despite losing her quarters match at the Asiad, PV Sindhu gained two spots in the rankings and is the new WR-13 player. Aakarshi Kashyap is the next-best Indian in the women’s singles at WR-41. Apart from that there was no significant gain/loss in the category. In the women’s doubles though, the pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand rose to WR-16. In the mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy are India’s best bets, at WR-38.
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