Kuala Lumpur: After clinching the USD 15,000 ´White Nights 2015´ International Challenge last week, Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong (a.k.a the diamond pair) continued their upward trajectory to rise at world No. 73 in the latest BWF rankings released on Thursday.
Chinese badminton ace Chen Long once again dominating on an unchanged top 5 men’s singles rankings. He remained atop the world men’s singles rankings for 29 consecutive weeks, followed by Jan O Jorgensen (Denmark), K. Srikanth (India), Kento Momota (Japan), and Lin Dan (China). Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia was staying in the same position at 65.
On the women’s side, Carolina Marin of Spain continued to top the women’s rankings with a lead only 1420 points over second ranked Saina Nehwal of India. There were no changes in the top 20 this week with Ratchanok Intanon at No. 3; Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian and Wang Yihan were at No. 4, No. 6, No. 8 respectively.
Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong of Korea topped the unchanged top 10 men’s doubles rankings with 92680 points, followed by Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark at 73830. Chai Biao/Hong Wei of China, on the other hand, has collected 69485 points, leading Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan of Indonesia (67637 points) and Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan (64957). Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysian claimed the No. 19th position at this week’s rankings.
Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi of Japan still the No. 1 women’s doubles pair in the world, ahead of Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang of China with a difference of nearly 4239 points. Luo Ying/Luo Yu of China bagged the third position while Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen of Denmark and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii stayed put on fourth and fifth spots. Both Malaysian pairs namely the reigning Commonwealth Games champions Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei still held on to the No. 12th spot, while the status quo of SEA Games gold medalists Amelia Alicia Anscelly/Soong Fie Cho has been maintained at No. 24.
Chinese pairs of Xu Chen/Ma Jin remained the closest pursuer of Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei at the top spot of mixed doubles. Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia was third while Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin of China and Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen of Denmark remained at 4th and 5th. Malaysia’s Tan Aik Quan/Lai Pei Jing was at No. 40 while Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying occupied the 48th spot.
