Kidambi Srikanth rises to career-best 2nd rank post stellar season

New Delhi: Indian ace shuttler Srikanth Kidmabi has risen to the zenith of his career as he established himself as world number 2 in the latest BWF men's singles ratings.

The young player has once again created history as he became only the first Indian male badminton player to achieve this rank, since the official Badminton World Federation ranking was introduced.

After his grand French Open win, the 24-year-old became the first Indian and only the fourth male shuttler in the history to lift four Super Series titles in a calendar year.

The Pullela Gopichand protege achieved the ranking after lifting the French Open trophy last week defeating his Japanese opponent 21-14, 21-13 in a one-sided summit showdown and clinching the Denmark Open Super Series Premier, the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier and Australian Open Super Series earlier in the year.

The top spot of the men's singles ranking has been held by Denmark's Viktor Axelsen, who Srikanth eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open.

Meanwhile, H.S. Prannoy, who Srikanth defeated in the French Open to score his place in the finals, too has climbed to his career-best ranking of 11th and is now staring at the top 10.

In the women singles BWF rankings, India's top two women shuttlers' rank remained unchanged.

French Open semi-finalist P.V. Sindhu is second to Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan, while Saina Nehwal, the 2012 French Open runner-up, is 11th in the latest rankings.

The young men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was placed at the 28th spot, five ranks higher to another Indian duo of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy.

In women's doubles rankings, Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy plunged two spots to the 25th.