Olympic & Worlds medallist PV Sindhu’s incredible title win at the Korea Open Superseries in Seoul on Sunday will also make a positive impact in her world rankings.
The 22-year-old is all set to climb back to her career-best ranking of No. 2 when the new BWF World Rankings are released on September 21, 2017.
The lanky Hyderabadi, who is currently placed at fourth, gained a staggering 9200 points by dint of her 22-20, 11-21, 21-18 triumph over the world champion Nozomi Okuhara as she had not participated in this tournament last year.
Sindhu previously attained second ranking on April 6 following her triumph in New Delhi when she had won India Open Super Series by 21-19, 21-16 over the reigning Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin.
#BWFRankingPrediction21Sep17 WS: PV Sindhu is back to World No.2 after winning at Korea! @Pvsindhu1
— Badminton Talk (@BadmintonTalk) September 17, 2017
Okuhara top 8! https://t.co/le93xHLhSH pic.twitter.com/7kemhxx3Ol
Sindhu’s win on Sunday in Seoul can draw parallel’s with her win then in Delhi. That time she had avenged for her loss in Rio de Janeiro and this time, by beating Okuhara, she has avenged for her loss at the World Championships a fortnight back in Glasgow.
As per the projected rankings, Sindhu will move up to second with 81,106 points to stay behind Tai Tzu Ying who has 94,409 points to her name. In the process she moves two places to leapfrog Sung Ji Hyun and Akane Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi, meanwhile, was ousted by Okuhara in the semi-finals and her points tally will only be 74869 with the addition of 6420 she got from Korea Open this year, hurtling her down two rungs to fourth.
Sung bowed out in the quarter-finals after a marathon match with the Chinese sixth seed He Bingjiao. The Korean will get 5040 points from her home Superseries tournament. Since it is lesser than the 6420 she grabbed at the Singapore Open Superseries thanks to a semi-final appearance, her Singapore points will be considered which will keep her static at the third position with a total of 76175.
She, however, maintained that revenge wasn’t on her mind following the Korea Open Super Series win. “I had lost to her after being 19-17 in the World Championship but I didn’t keep that in my mind even though there were long rallies. I kept telling myself next point is important. I had to control the shuttle very much, so there was nothing in my mind,” Sindhu said.