WORLD RANKINGS – Just shy of a new #1

China’s Wang Xin (pictured) came up just short of a world title on Sunday but her stellar performance in Paris put her back in the hunt for the position as the world’s #1 women’s singles player as the extra ranking points on offer at the BWF World Badminton Championships do another of their annual shakeups of the top of badminton’s table.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: BadmintonPhoto

Wang Lin may have taken the world title but, after reaching world #1 last fall, last week she actually slipped out of the world’s top ten for the first time in well over a year.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) usually updates the ranking tables every Thursday and this time, when they do, we’ll see that Wang Lin’s win in Paris will have put her back firmly in the top 10 but it is Wang Xin who will be making the next assault on Wang Yihan’s top dog status, to which she has clung since last October.  Yihan’s 3rd round exit will still give her the tiny bump she needs to stay ahead of Xin but the China Masters and Japan Open will most likely decide who will be sitting on top of the world this fall.

India’s Saina Nehwal, whose hat-trick of tournament wins around the summer solstice saw her inch up to the #2 spot, will slide back down to 3rd, having earned the smattering of points she needed to remain aloft of Wang Shixian’s massive jump.  However, the two-time Indonesia Open champion will miss her best chance yet at the top spot as she is skipping the next legs of the Super Series, where the four Wangs all have considerable points to defend from last year’s editions.

In men’s singles, Lee Chong Wei is still in an unassailable position at the top but Chen Jin will leapfrog Taufik and Simon Santoso into third place behind Peter Gade.  No major changes are expected in the men’s and women’s doubles.  With most of the Chinese players sitting at under 10 tournaments, they are major beneficiaries of the points from the Worlds but Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng, for example had plummeted to the #28 position so their title will lift them just short of a re-entry into the top ten.

Lost in the clamour of last week’s action in Paris was the leap into the world #1 mixed doubles spot by Poland’s Robert Mateusiak / Nadiezda Zieba (pictured).  However, not only was their first ever glimpse of the top spot overshadowed by the World Championship fever that the Poles almost entirely missed out on, but their moment ‘in the sun’ will also be short-lived, as Nova Widianto / Lilyana Natsir will return to no. 1 again by the time the rankings are updated on Thursday.

For the current BWF world rankings, CLICK HERE

Here is the expected new top 3 to be released on Thursday by the BWF.  These are not official.

Men’s Singles:

1. Lee Chong Wei (MAS)
2. Peter Gade (DEN)
3. Chen Jin (CHN)

Women’s Singles:

1. Wang Yihan (CHN)
2. Wang Xin (CHN)
3. Saina Nehwal (IND)

Mixed Doubles:

1. Nova Widianto / Lilyana Natsir (INA)
2. Hendra Aprida Gunawan / Vita Marissa (INA)
3. Robert Mateusiak / Nadiezda Zieba (POL)

Men’s and Women’s Doubles:

(No change from last week)