Srikanth on top of the world, to be crowned Number 1 this week

NEW DELHI: After leading India to their first badminton mixed team gold at Commonwealth Games, Kidambi Srikanth will on Thursday reach the pinnacle of international badminton, becoming the first Indian man to be ranked as the world’s No.1 singles player.

Srikanth will go past Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, the current world champion, who has been out of action since retiring from the second round of the Indonesia Masters in January with an ankle injury. He subsequently pulled out of the India Open Superseries, the All England Open and the European Championships after a surgery.

Axelsen is currently on 77,130 points in the ranking charts while Srikanth is at 76,895 points. But the Dane is likely to lose 1,660 points this week, taking Srikanth go to the top spot when the new Badminton Wold Federation rankings are released on April 12.

Saina Nehwal had become the top ranked player in women’s badminton on April 3, 2015, soon after winning the India Open. “This is a huge achievement for Srikanth as well as for Indian badminton,” chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said from

Gold Coast, Australia.

“There has been a lot of talk about our women doing well, but now we will have a men’s No.1. This will help Srikanth become more relaxed. Whatever happens from here, he will always know that he was ranked as the best in the world -- that he has accomplished that goal . It will help him focus more on winning tournaments,” said Gopichand, who was the last Indian to win the All England Open in 2001. He reached a career high of five in the world rankings. India’s other All England champion, Prakash Padukone, was regarded as the world No 1 in 1980, though the ranking system was not official.