Indian Badminton Duo Rankireddy and Shetty Slip to Third in World Rankings

The Indian badminton duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who recently withdrew from the Indonesia Open title defense, have slipped two positions to third in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings. The Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang have ascended to the top spot, while Denmark's Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen have moved up two places to second.

Rankireddy and Shetty, who regained the world number one ranking after winning the Thailand Open in May, have struggled for form lately. They suffered a first-round exit at the Singapore Open last month and have also withdrawn from the ongoing Australian Open.

In men's singles, HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen have maintained their positions within the top 15, remaining at 10th and 14th respectively. Kidambi Srikanth has dropped four places to 32nd, while Priyanshu Rajawat (34th) and Kiran George (35th, up one place) are the next best Indians.

Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu remains steady at 10th in the women's singles rankings. In women's doubles, the Paris Olympics-bound pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa have improved one place to 19th. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have also climbed one notch to 24th. The Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist pair had reached the last 16 at the Indonesia Open.

Tags: #Badminton, #BWF, #WorldRankings, #SatwiksairajRankireddy, #ChiragShetty