Kuala Lumpur: Chen Long who capped a remarkable season by winning 8 titles in 2015, finished the year atop the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings with 96,931 ranking points.
In the latest BWF rankings published on December 31, 2015, Chen Long clinched World No. 1 for the 53rd consecutive weeks and almost certainly going to be the player everybody wants to beat in 2016. Another Chinese player Lin Dan stayed at No. 4.
After a somewhat turbulent season, former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei achieved the unimaginable by overcoming a lot of obstacles to improve his ranking from World No. 180 in June 2015 to finish the year strong at No. 5.
Overall, men’s top 10 remained unchanged, including Jan O Jorgensen at No. 2, and Kento Momota at No. 3, and Viktor Axelsen at No. 6.
There were no changes to the top 10 in women’s singles as well. Carolina Marin of Spain who participated in 15 tournaments and won six titles has widened her lead over No. 2 Sainal Nehwal of India with 91,192 points compared to Nehwal’s 78,482 points. China’s Li Xuerui finished the year at No. 3, followed by Wang Yihan, Ratchanok Intanon and Wang Shixian.
Chinese sisters Luo Ying and Luo Yu held on to the top spot in women’s doubles while their compatriots Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei continued to dominate the mixed doubles with 99,735 points. Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying remained at No. 15 in the mixed doubles category.
In men’s doubles, Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong of South Korea still the world’s No. 1 men’s pair, followed by Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan, and Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan at No. 2 and No. 3. Malaysia’s Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong were ranked at No. 15 while Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong were ranked No. 18.
