Rising Indian shuttler Sourabh Varma, on Thursday, cracked into the top 50 in the latest World badminton rankings following his superb performance at the Syed Modi Grand Prix [ Images ] gold tournament last week.

Sourabh, who finished runner-up at the season-ending tournament, jumped 22 ranking places to be placed at the 50th position in the ranking.

The 20-year-old from Madhya Pradesh [ Images ] had a dream run in the prestigious tournament as he beat higher-ranked players such as Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia, Yun Hu of Hong Kong and Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand en route to the final where he lost to former Olympic [ Images ] and World champion Taufik Hidayat in Lucknow [ Images ].

"This is my first year in international circuit and I am happy to break into the top 50. I had calculated during the Syed Modi tournament that I will hopefully make it to the top 50. Now my target is to reach the top 30 next year," Sourabh said.

"Gopi sir has told me that I have improved and I have to keep working hard. I have learned a lot from the mistakes that I committed during the tournament. With experience, I can only improve," added the Bahrain International challenger winner.

Top Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal [ Images ] continued to hold the fourth position in the women's ranking, while among other men's singles players, RMV Gurusaidutt gained three places to be at the 40th place.

P Kashyap and Ajay Jayaram were at the 27th and 28th position.

V Diju and Jwala Gutta [ Images ] jumped four places to 14th spot after their semifinal finish at Syed Modi, while commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa were also at the 14th position.