Sindhu surges to third spot, Praneeth achieves career-best ranking

Olympic medallist PV Sindhu climbed up two places to achieve third spot in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released on Thursday.

Sindhu's upward move in rankings came after she made a quarter-final finish at the Singapore Open Superseries, where she went down 11-21, 15-21 at the hands of World No.3 and long-time arch-rival Carolina Marin of Spain.

Earlier this month, Sindhu had attained her career-best world number two ranking after clinching her maiden India Open Super Series title.

She, however, was once again dropped to World No 5 following a first round exit at the Malaysian Open.

Meanwhile, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal, who is still struggling to find her feet after a knee injury post the Rio Olympics, has moved up one place to the eighth spot despite not playing the Singapore Open.

In the men's singles rankings, B. Sai Praneeth has jumped up eight places to achieve his career-best ranking of World No 22 after clinching Singapore Open title following a straight games win over Kidambi Srikanth.

While Ajay Jayaram stands at the 13th spot having climbed one place, Srikanth moved eight places to rank 21st in the world.

The women's singles chart is led by Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei with 93721 points, while Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia is leading the men's singles chart with 81703 points.