Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will spearhead a strong contingent at the USD 250,000 Swiss Open, beginning on Tuesday, aiming to regain top form.
Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen continued to be the best-placed Indian at number seven while former world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth gained a rung to the 11th position.
"She will need to be at her best for next year which will have Asian Games and also the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification, playing about 22 tournaments will be tough, so she is taking extra care,"
HS Prannoy, who occupies the 8th spot, is the best ranked Indian in the men's singles while Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth are placed 19th and 20th respectively.
Among other Indians in men's singles, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian defeated Malaysia's June Wei Cheam 15-21, 21-15, 21-19 in a tough three-game contest. He will next be up against Indonesia's Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the semifinals of the Malaysia Open
The duo is aiming for top-30 ranking and continued success in bigger tournaments.
The 21-year-old Sen, who won a bronze in the 2021 World Championships, has been in brilliant form, starting the year with a gold medal at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open before finishing runner-up, at the prestigious All England Open Championships and also at the German Open.
Fellow Indian Kidambi Srikanth also jumped two places to sit at the 12th spot, while Lakshya Sen continued to be the best-placed Indian male shuttler at world number 9.
The former world number one said she tried contacting the BWF, but got no response from the badminton world body.
India's badminton great Prakash Padukone will receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award this year from the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
No Indians featured in the women's doubles and mixed doubles rankings.
India's Lakshya Sen came up with a spirited performance to overcome Hong Kong China's Angus Ng Ka Long in three games
While India have never won the gold at the Asia Mixed Team Championships, they did secure mixed team gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and 2022.
Earlier in the day, the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanshia Crasto squandered an early lead to go down 21-18, 15-21, 19-21 against Malaysia's Pang Ron Hoo and Su Yin Cheng in the second round.
Despite the name, Indian success at the tournament hasn't been particularly regular with none from the host nation winning any title in the past two editions.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, on the other hand, moved one place to 31st.
The former world junior number one thus joined fellow Indians Aparna Popat (1996), Saina Nehwal (2006) and Siril Verma (2015) in winning a silver medal at the prestigious tournament.
Indian shuttler Kiran George's impressive run at the Korea Masters came to an end with a semifinal loss to Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn
The BWF also shared its Standard Operation Procedure with member associations, saying any breach "can result in accreditation being revoked and participants not permitted to enter the venue."
Lee, 2019 Hong Kong open winner, had finished as runner-up in the last edition and his dream of winning the title remained unfulfilled after he went down in the final for the second time in two years.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's impressive run at the Malaysia Super 1000 badminton tournament came to an end
Just 18 months after pairing up, the young mixed doubles pair of Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath rise to World No 33.
PV Sindhu on Sunday said she is "definitely" going to play for the next couple of years even as the 2028 Los Angeles Games remains at the back of her mind.
Shuttlers in the singles competition have to be inside top-16 of world rankings to qualify for the Olympics. The cut-off for doubles is also top-16.
Bhagat now has 11 medals, including six gold, two silver and three bronze medals in the world championships. He has the distinction of reaching the finals in all the editions, barring the 2007 and 2017 World Championships.
The apex body also advised "teams and participants entering tournaments during the European and Asian legs" to "not return to their home countries as many would then have to undergo a 14-day quarantine period upon their return."
Kiran George dished out yet another gritty performance to upset third seed Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei.
The world No. 3 Indian pair was scheduled to meet the German duo of Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel on Monday in what was supposed to be their second Group C match, but it was cancelled following the withdrawal of Lamsfuss due to injury.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu defeated rising shuttler Anmol Kharb 21-17, 21-15, while Lakshya, 2021 world championships bronze medallist, powered past Malaysian qualifier Sholeh Aidil 21-12, 21-12 in another match.
Bhagat will miss the upcoming Paris Paralympic Games after being suspended for 18 months for breaching the Badminton World Federation (BWF) anti-doping regulations.
In the men's doubles however, the Indian pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to 11th seeded Russian pair of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 11-21, 16-21 in a second round match that lasted 41 minutes.
In May, the BWF had unveiled a revised international calendar to salvage the remainder of the season. However, with the global health crisis showing no signs of abating, many events were cancelled from the reworked calendar.
Tokyo gold medallist para shuttler Pramod Bhagat will not be able to defend his title at the Paris Paralympics after he was handed a 18-month suspension for breaching BWF's anti-doping whereabouts clause.
It was yet another forgettable outing in Tokyo for Praneeth, following his struggles at last year's Olympic Games where he participated without a proper coach or physio to eventually bow out early.
Australia's winter sports community has been forced back into mourning with the sudden death of 20-year-old Olympic figure skater Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya in Moscow.
BWF, in a statement, said that only those athletes eligible for the originally scheduled championships are allowed to enter.
Indian shuttlers who competed at the Paris Olympics, including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, are giving the tournament, the year's final BWF Super 1000 event, a miss.
Both Super 100 tournaments have now been removed from the BWF's revamped calendar.
When the going gets tough for P V Sindhu, the star badminton player dives into her highly successful past to seek inspiration to keep going in her quest for more glory.
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