PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Srikanth and Prannoy qualify for badminton World Championships

With the current world rankings being the qualifying criteria, Kidambi Srikanth (No.5) and HS Prannoy (No.10) made the cut in men’s singles, while in the women’s singles, PV Sindhu (No.3), Saina (No.12) have qualified for the BWF Badminton World Championships.

Four Indians – PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy – booked their berths for the 2018 World Championships on Friday, based on the current Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings.

Saina Nehwal, who beat PV Sindhu to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast earlier this month. They both will spearhead India’s challenge in the women’s singles segment at the  BWF Badminton World Championships. (PTI)

The rankings determine the eligibility of players under the first phase of the qualifying system -- ‘Race to Nanjing’. The annual tournament will be held in the Chinese city from July 30 to August 5.

In men’s singles, defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark heads the qualifiers along with reigning Olympic champion Chen Long and five-time World Champion Lin Dan. Indians Srikanth (No.5) and Prannoy (No.10) too made the cut.

In women’s singles, both Sindhu (No.3) Saina (No.12) have qualified.

Both Sindhu and Saina rewrote history at last year’s event when they returned with the silver and bronze medals respectively. It was the first instance when Indian shuttlers brought home two medals from the same World Championships.

While Sindhu lost the memorable final to Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, Saina went down in the semi-finals.

Also, both the girls are the only two Indians to own multiple medals from the prestigious tournament. While Saina has a silver (2015) and a bronze (2017) each, Sindhu has won the bronze twice (2013 & 2014) and the silver last year (2017).