Red-hot Lakshya Sen getting closer to Paris

PTI

New Delhi, March 19

India’s Lakshya Sen today jumped five places to reach world No. 13 in the latest BWF rankings following his impressive run at the All England Championships.

The 22-year-old had reached the semifinals in Birmingham and his effort saw him improve from world No. 15 to No. 12 in the Olympic Games Qualification. The top-16 in the world by April-end will make the cut for the Olympics.

Paddler Sharath jumps 54 places

New Delhi: Veteran Indian table tennis player Sharath Kamal today gained as many as 54 places to jump to 34th spot in the ITTF word rankings, following a quarterfinal finish at the Singapore Smash last week. Sharath had been in the top-50 for a long time before a string of early exits pushed him down in the rankings. Sharath is now the highest ranked Indian with Harmeet Desai closest at 65th. PTI

HS Prannoy is at No. 9 in the Paris race and Sen too is primed to make the cut.

Sen had reached a career-best ranking of world No. 6 in November 2022 but saw his rankings plummet to world No. 25 in April last year. He recovered to 11th spot by August but fell to 20 early this year following a series of early exits.

His Olympics qualification too was in doldrums after a series of first round exits. But back-to-back semifinals brought him back.

In women’s singles, two-time Olympics medallist PV Sindhu is in the 11th position. The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was at the top position, while Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto are ranked 20th. Compatriots Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand slipped to 26th place.

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