Kuala Lumpur: The 23-year-old reigning World Champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark moved up 1 spot at the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings on Thursday to become the new No. 1 men’s singles player in the world.
After his victory at the Japan Open Superseries, Axelsen earned a total of 76,200 points, which was enough to dethrone Son Wan Ho of South Korea to the second spot. This was Axelsen’s first stay at the No. 1 position.
Axelsen also became the first European men’s singles player to reach the top of the BWF ranking since Peter Gade made it in 2006.
Other than the number 1 and number 2 positions, there wasn’t much movement at the top 10 of the BWF rankings. Lin Dan and Shi Yuqi stayed in the third and fourth spots, followed by Chou Tien Chen, Chen Long, Lee Chong Wei, in the fifth, sixth and seventh.
In women’s singles, the latest rankings also showed little change as Tai Tzu Ying has continued her domination on an unchanged top 3 in the latest rankings released by the BWF on Thursday.
Tai topped the standings with 94,409 points over second placed Indian P.V Sindhu’s 81,106 points. Sung Ji Hyun of Korea remained in third position, while last week’s Japan Open champion Carolina Marin climbed up one spot to No. 4.
The 2017 Japan Open champions Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia reclaimed the world number one position in men’s doubles, while Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen of Denmark slid one spot to No. 2.
