Another week in the new season and another rather unnoteworthy outing for India's badminton contingent on the BWF World Tour. At last week's Indonesia Masters Super 500, no Indian progressed beyond the second round.
PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen move up BWF rankings
There were shock losses for top players such as PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty against unheralded opponents in what was the third straight week of play for them (except Sindhu.) There will be a brief break for the big names in the coming weeks, in which they will aim to regroup after the middling start to the year.
Here's a look at this week's BWF rankings of the top Indian players, and what that tells us about the state of play:
(Note: BWF rankings update every Tuesday and for this purpose, we will look at the Top 32 as that is the tournament's draw size.)
Men's Singles Rankings
Lakshya Sen, 10 (--)
HS Prannoy, 31 (--)
There has been no major change in India's men's singles ranking in the top 32.
However, Kiran George's rise last week due to his India Open run has reversed, as he falls two spots to world No 37. Another cause for concern is former world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth, who lost to fellow Indian Ayush Shetty (up 1 spot to 46) in qualifying last week and is currently down two spots to world No 47.
The world No 1 remains China's Shi Yu Qi.
Women's Singles Rankings
PV Sindhu, 13 (-1)
Malvika Bansod, 29 (-2)
Not a good week for Indian women's badminton as both Sindhu and Malvika Bansod slipped down the rankings.
Sindhu was stunned in the first round in Indonesia by world No. 32 Nguyen Thuy Linh of Vietnam 22-20, 21-12. It was not a result many saw coming as the Indian had started her season looking physically sharp at the Indian Open the week before. Malvika, on the other hand, did not play the tournament.
South Korea's An Se Young maintains her dominance at the top of the charts.
Men's Doubles Rankings
Satwik-Chirag, 7 (+2)
Some good news in doubles as Satwik and Chirag have climbed two placed to No 7. However, this is not due to their performance over the last week - an erratic, second-round loss to Kittinupong Kedren - Dechapol Puavaranukroh of Thailand 20-22, 21-23.
It's partly due to the dropping off former world champion pair of Seo Seungjae and Kang Minhyuk, both of whom have different partners now.
The world No 1 pair remain Denmark's Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
Women's Doubles Rankings
Treesa-Gayatri, 9 (--)
Ashwini-Tanisha, 19 (--)
While Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand did not play last week (Indonesia Masters is a Super 500 and there not mandatory), Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto lost in the second round in a three-game battle.
The top pair continue to be South Korea's Baek Hana and Lee Sohee.
Mixed Doubles Rankings
Sikki-Sumeeth, 31 (--)
Aadya-Sathish, 32 (--)
Both pairs were not in action in the last week.
The world No 1 pair remains China's Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping, and by a sizeable margin.