Nehwal, Prannoy break into top 10 of BWF rankings

Few days after settling for a bronze medal at the Asia Championships in Wuhan, ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy and London Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal have broken into the top 10 of the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released on Thursday.

Nehwal, who picked up a gold medal in the recently-concluded 21st Commonwealth Games, made it to the semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Championship, only to see herself slumping to a 25-27, 19-21 defeat at the hands of World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

Prannoy, on the other hand, displayed some patches of brilliance against his Olympic champion Chen Long in the semi-final clash, but the Chinese shuttler and third seed eventually prevailed the Indian 21-16, 21-18 in a 52-minute match.

The result, however, helped Prannoy and Nehwal climb up two places to reach career-best eighth spot and tenth spot respectively.

Commonwealth silver-medallist Kidambi Srikanth, who held the top spot when the rankings were released on April 12, moved up two places to the third place in the men's singles rankings.

In the women singles rankings, Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu continued to stand on the third place.

Viktor Axelsen of Denmark is at the top spot in the men's rankings, while Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei leads the women's singles standings.