Kuala Lumpur: After winning three consecutive Superseries tournaments over the past three weeks including India, Malaysia and Singapore Open, 21-year-old Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand had moved up one place to the World No. 1 ranking in the latest world badminton rankings released by Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday.
Despite the No. 1 ranking, Intanon who earned a total of 84,708 points, only has 478 more ranking points than the World No. 2 Spaniard, Carolina Marin.
The Thai player who also known as Nong May, was the first Thai badminton player to become No.1 in the world singles rankings.
In men’s singles, Chen Long and Lee Chong Wei once again finished the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Lin Dan bounced up 1 spot to No. 3.
Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong, Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan topped the first 2 standings in men’s doubles, followed by Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan, Kim Gi Jung/Kim Sa Rang and Chai Biao/Hong Wei.
Last week’s Singapore Open women’s doubles winners Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii advanced one position to World No. 2, while Japanese pair Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi remained their status as the world’s top ranked women’s doubles pair. Chinese pairs Tang Yuanting/Yu Yang and Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei occupied the No. 3 and No. 4 spots while Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen staying constant at the 5th spot.
Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei, Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir, Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na, Xu Chen/Ma Jin and Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin rounded up the 5 best mixed doubles pair in the world.
