Sensational Indian badminton star Kidambi Srikanth surges to top position at BWF rankings

New Delhi, April 12: Sensational Indian badminton star Kidambi Srikanth on Thursday while adding to his cap as he became world No. 1 in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings. Notably, Kidambi Srikanth replaced Denmark's Viktor Axelsen to clinch the top position in BWF rankings.

 

Srikanth surged to the top position in BWF rankings with 76,895 points in men's singles category displaced Denmark's Viktor Axelsen who lost at least 1,660 points after losing Malaysian Open title. On the other side, the 25-year-old Srikanth clinched the mixed team gold in the ongoing Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Kidambi Srikanth also defeated Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne 2-0 (21-10, 21-10) in just 33 minutes to reach the quarterfinals in the 2018 Commonwealth Games badminton men’s singles. However, Srikanth earlier in November last year achieved the second-ranking but missed out the chance to claim the top position after suffering an injury.

Kidambi has won four Super Series titles including Indonesia, Australia, Denmark, and France last year, becoming only the fourth in the world to achieve the feat. Importantly, it is also a massive achievement for Pullela Gopichand who has been coaching both Nehwal and Srikanth at his academy in Hyderabad. In the year 2015, Nehwal attained the world no. 1 ranking and won over twenty-three international titles including ten Superseries titles.