Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen climbs to 15th rank, keeps Olympic qualification hopes alive
Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen moved up from the 18th rank to the 16th position in the BWF rankings. It came after his semi-final finish at the French Open Super 750 in Paris to enter the top 16 of the BWF’s Race to Paris - Olympic qualification rankings.
Notably, Lakshya is currently ranked in the 15th position in the race to Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification rankings with 59221 points. On the other hand, HS Prannoy is in the eighth spot, having nearly secured his place at the mega event with 74897 points.
Lakshya has now become the second Indian player to make the cut in the top 16 of te Olympic qualification rankings and his chances of making it to the Paris 2024 Olympics strengthened.
It’s important to note that Lakshya Sen went through nose surgery last year after winning the Canada Open. He has gone through a prolonged slump in his career since then, resulting in losing his ranking to 25 from his career-best six, which he achieved in 2022.
French Open semi-final finish helps Lakshya Sen to stay alive for Olympics
For Lakshya Sen, things didn’t look promising after he made nine first-round exits on the BWF World Tour. He continued his first-round losses at the season-opening Malaysia Open Super 1000 and India Open Super 750 before the French Open Semi-Final finish, where he lost to Kunlavut Vitidsam.
However, after his semi-final finish at the French Open, he is now well in contention for a place in the Olympics. Importantly, only two players from a country are eligible to qualify, given the singles player is ranked in the top 16 of the Olympic qualifiers. The BWF set April 28 as the cut-off date for qualification.
In women's singles, PV Sindhu is ranked in the 11th position, while in men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are ranked in the second position. They have almost secured their spots for the quadrennial event.
In women's doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa maintain India's best-placed pair at 11th position. Notably, one country can send a maximum of one pair in doubles to the Olympics, given their players are ranked in the top eight of the qualification rankings.