PV Sindhu’s Struggles Continue, Falls to World No. 17 in BWF Rankings

Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu has dropped to the 17th position in the latest BWF world rankings, facing inconsistency in her form. Since returning from a five-month injury layoff, Sindhu has struggled to secure consecutive wins, resulting in a title-less streak this season. This is her lowest ranking in over a decade, with her last rank at 17th in January 2013. Sindhu, a former world number 2, had been in the top 10 since 2016, reaching a career-best of world number 2 in April 2016.

In hopes of finding her footing quickly within the Olympic qualification period ending in April next year, Sindhu has enlisted the services of Indonesian coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, a former All-England champion. Despite her recent setbacks, Sindhu had a noteworthy performance at the Madrid Spain Masters, where she reached the final, marking her best finish this season. She also achieved a semifinal finish at the Malaysia Masters and Canada Open but faced a quarterfinal exit at the US Open. Currently, she is participating in a Super 500 tournament in Korea.

HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, and Kidambi Srikanth maintained their rankings at 10th, 12th, and 20th positions respectively. On the other hand, Saina Nehwal dropped to the 36th position in the world rankings. India’s best-placed shuttlers in men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty maintained their position at world number 3. In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand slipped one spot to the 19th position. Unfortunately, no Indian players featured in the top 25 in mixed doubles.