Son Wan Ho to be king for a…week!

Korea’s Son Wan Ho (pictured) is poised to ascend to #1 in the world men’s singles rankings tomorrow.  With his three predecessors Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, and Chen Long on the brink of going down to 8, 8, and 7 tournaments respectively in the past year, the removal of 2016 Thomas Cup ranking points will leave Son high and dry at the top of the table.

With only a 1000-point margin over Lee Chong Wei, the Korean’s stint at the top will be short-lived.  Badminton World Federation (BWF) ranking regulations mean that Lee’s ranking will go up by 10% for just participating in the Sudirman Cup this week and these points will put him back at #1 on June 1st.  Son has only one Grand Prix Gold title in the past 12 months, but he also reached the finals of two Superseries events last autumn and played in three more semi-finals.

Son has joined a select group.  How select a group it is cannot be easily verified, however, as the BWF either destroyed or denied the public access to its pre-2009 ranking records in 2010 but Son is definitely one of only a handful of players to occupy the #1 spot since Lin Dan first reached the summit in the spring of 2004.  Shortly before Lin made his ascension, Son’s compatriot Lee Hyun Il also spent exactly one week as #1, in February 2004 and he was the first Korean to do that in the discipline.  Since then, of course, Lee Chong Wei and Chen Long have also spent considerable periods at the top and Peter Gade also had a cameo appearance in June 2006 (see archived article here) five years after he had last been at the men’s singles pinnacle.

Click here tomorrow to see the new BWF rankings

Photo:  Luis Veniegra / Badmintonphoto (live)