Badmintonscholar presents the analysis of the Indian players' World Rank on Week 43, 23 Oct 2022, and discusses the perspectives of the players to represent the country in the BWF World Tour Finals Guangzhou 2022 and Summer Olympics Paris 2024.
Paris 2024
Paris qualification period will start from May 1 in 2023 to April 28 in 2024.
Rule 1: During the qualification period, player should be ranked between 1-250 in the BWF Race to Paris Ranking list of 28 April 2024.
Rule 2: There will be at least two athletes from each of the five BWF Continental Confederations. Though India is an Asian Country, players cannot enjoy the continental quota.
Rule 3: During the qualification period, the country's top player will qualify if they are in the top 35 in the Race to Paris Ranking list.
Rule 4:During the qualification period, the country's top two players will qualify if they are in the top 16 in the Race to Paris Ranking list.
Guangzhou 2022
Qualified players for the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals will be confirmed after the SATHIO GROUP Australian Open, 15-20 November 2022. The top eight players and pairs in each category in the BWF World Tour Rankings will be invited to compete, with a maximum of two players or pairs per Country being eligible.
Indian Men's Singles contingent is stronger because of its distribution and depth. Lakshya, Kidambi, and Prannoy are contesting stronger to ensure 2 berths for the next Summer Olympics Paris 2024 and Guangzhou 2022.
Sameer Verma, Sai Praneeth, and Sourabh Varma may surprise and penetrate into the top 16 if they perform better during the qualification period.
The promising young players just completed their junior circuit career-best entered into the top 100, Priyanshu RAJAWAT, Meiraba Luwang MAISNAM, and Sathish Kumar KARUNAKARAN are promising a strong tail of the Indian Men's Singles Contingent.
World Top 100 Men's Singles Indian Players
8, Lakshya SEN
11, KIDAMBI Srikanth
12, PRANNOY H. S.
31, Sameer Verma
38, Sai Praneeth
45, Mithun Manjunath
47, Parupalli Kashyap
53, Sourabh VERMA
54, Kiran GEORGE
58, Priyanshu Rajawat
66, Meiraba Luwang MAISNAM
76, Subhankar DEY
87, Sathish Kumar KARUNAKARAN
92, Kartikey GULSHAN KUMAR
94, Chirag SEN
In contrast to the Men's Singles, other categories of the Indian side need more focus and fuel to identify potential players and pairs to qualify for Olympics from the top 16 ranks slot.
The minimum and a possible number of players/pairs that can represent a country in the Olympics is 5, each one for a category. At the same time, if two players/pairs from a country are in the top 16 of each category, the Maximum probability is 10 players/pairs. If the same world ranking positions are considered now, India can represent only 6 players/pairs in Paris 2024.
Top 100 Women's Singles Indian Players
5, PV Sindhu
33, Saina Nehwal
39, Malvika Bansod
45, Aakarshi Kashyap
53, Anupama Upadhyaya
57, Ashmita Chaliha
64, TANYA HEMANTH
66, Imad Farooqui SAMIYA
67, IRA Sharma
72, Tasnim MIR
73, SMIT TOSHNIWAL
85, GADDE Ruthvika Shivan
90, Sri Krishna Priya KUDARAVALLI
91, Rituparna DAS
95, Aditi BHATT
While Saina struggles to keep her momentum, identifying the next players to join Sindhu in the top 16 to qualify for Paris is a challenge for India. Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap are in the top 50 and give confidence.
Similarly in Men's Doubles, next to Satwik and Chirag, Arjun and Dhruv is in World 21 and pushing toward the rank 16 mark. The other 5 pairs are in the top 100, it will be a challenge for them to manage Indonesia, China, and other Asian counterparts.
Top 100 Men's Doubles Indian Players
8, Satwiksairaj RANKIREDDY Chirag SHETTY
19, M.R. ARJUN DHRUV KAPILA
34, Krishna Prasad GARAGA Vishnuvardhan Goud PANJALA
48, Ishaan BHATNAGAR Sai PRATHEEK.K
59, P.S RAVIKRISHNA Sankar Prasad UDAYAKUMAR
63, ATTRI Manu REDDY B. Sumeeth
66, Shyam PRASAD S. Sunjith (Jr)
87, Vasantha Kumar HANUMAIAH RANGANATHA Ashith SURYA
In a meantime, we cannot ignore the growth of the youngsters Hariharan and Rubankumar who won the National Ranking Tournament 2022, Pune this month, have reached the top 200 during the last 12 weeks and are promising.
Top 100 Women's Doubles Indian Players
If Trisha Jolly and Gayatri manage the upcoming world tours, they may join with Ashwini and Sikki.
24, Ashwini PONNAPPA REDDY Sikki
27, Treesa JOLLY, GAYATRI GOPICHAND PULLELA
39, Ashwini BHAT K.Shikha GAUTAM
58, Haritha MANAZHIYIL H Ashna ROY
63, Simran SINGHI Ritika THAKER
97, Palak ARORA Unnati HOODA
Mixed Doubles is the area in which India has to concentrate more. Only 6 pairs are in the top 100 and no one is in or nearer to the top 16. Among these top 6 pairs, Men's and Women's doubles experts, Satwik, Aswhini, Sikki, and Dhruv are part. Though they are close to the world's top 16, they will concentrate on Doubles.
Top 100 Mixed Doubles Indian Players
29, Ishaan BHATNAGAR Tanisha CRASTO
44,Venkat Gaurav PRASAD Juhi DEWANGAN
52, Satwiksairaj RANKIREDDY Ashwini PONNAPPA
63, REDDY B. Sumeeth Ashwini PONNAPPA
73, DHRUV KAPILA REDDY Sikki
93, M.R. ARJUN Treesa JOLLY
No. of World Top 16 Indian Players
Men's Singles 03
Women's Singles 01
Men's Doubles 01
Women's Doubles 00
Mixed Doubles 00
Top 16 players will get sufficient support from SAI, BAI and Sponsors to be on the top ranking.
They are the probable contingent of World Tour Finals 2022 and Paris 2024.
No. of World Top 17 to 50 Indian Players
Men's Singles 04
Women's Singles 03
Men's Doubles 03
Women's Doubles 03
Mixed Doubles 02
Players in top 50 world ranking will get sufficient sponsorship and fund from SAI and BAI to participate more NWF tournaments.
Even though they are in World Top 50, they require to participate in the National Selection Trials of Core Group and major international tournaments.
They are directly eligible to participate in the participate in the National Selection Trials of Core Group Development and major international tournaments.
No. of World Top 100 Indian Players
Men's Singles 16
Women's Singles 13
Men's Doubles 07
Women's Doubles 06
Mixed Doubles 06
These players will get qualification and maindraw entry for BWF 100 and 300 tournaments which will boost their World ranking further.
These players have to focus on their National circuits too to qualify the selection trials for Core Group of the year to get fund from BAI and SAI.
