Kidambi Srikanth climbs two places in BWF rankings to reach career-best world No.2 spot

India ace Kidambi Srikanth was rewarded for a title-winning spree in Super Series event this season as he climbed to a career-best World No. 2 ranking in the latest BWF ranking released on Thursday.

Srikanth, who reached five finals and clinched four titles this year so far, now has 73,403 points, 4527 point away from World Champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, who heads the ranking list.

The 25-year-old from Guntur, who had clinched back-to- back titles at Indonesia and Australia and then at Denmark and France, will have a chance to topple the Dane shuttler with some good show in the upcoming events at China and Hong Kong.

US Open Grand Prix Gold winner H S Prannoy, who had reached the semifinals at Paris, also improved a place to reach a career-best ranking of World No. 11.

Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth, however, dropped a place to be at the 16th spot, while Sameer Verma, who had skipped the events at Denmark and France due to fitness issues, is steady at the 18th place.

In women's singles, P V Sindhu, who also reached the semifinals at France, was static at World No. 2, while former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal was also steady at the 11th spot.

Young men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who entered the quarterfinals last week after beating the World No. 6 combo of Mads Pieler Kolding and Mads-Conrad-Petersen, improved four spots to be at the 28th place.

Women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy slipped two places to be at the 25th spot, while mixed doubles combo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki were steady at the 16th place.