Kuala Lumpur: For the first time since his removal from all Badminton World Federation (BWF) ranking lists on April 2016, following his suspension for gambling at an illegal casino, Japan’s former World No. 2 player Kento Momota has moved up a spot in the latest BWF rankings to achieve his best position in two years of World No. 10.
Malaysian Lee Chong Wei climbed one place to No. 6 while Chinese star Lin Dan has improved from World No. 10 to World No. 8.
Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen was unchanged at No. 1 followed by Son Wan Ho, Shi Yuqi, Chou Tien Chen and Chen Long in the men’s top five.
The women’s top six ranking remained unchanged, with Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-Ying staying at top, while Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, PV Sindhu of India, Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, Chen Yufei of China and Carolina Marin of Spain rounded off the next 5 positions.
In the men’s doubles rankings, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia have been untouchable at World No. 1, while Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan raised one spot to World No. 2. However, both Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark and Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen of China both drop one position to No. 3 and No. 5 respectively.
Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan became the new women’s doubles World No. 1 after overtaking Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s top mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai has surged up a spot to achieve a new career best position of World No. 6.
