
Tokyo: Japan’s women’s singles ace Akane Yamaguchi is expected to become the new World No. 1 player when the Badminton World Federation (BWF) releases its weekly rankings on Thursday (April 19, 2018), overtaking the reigning World No. 1 player Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan.
The 20-year-old, who managed to enter the finals at five Superseries tournaments last year was able to clinch the China Open and Dubai World Superseries Finals titles. She will make history on Thursday to become the first Japanese women’s singles player to hold the World number one spot in the BWF world rankings.
Yamaguchi has been known for her tireless running and extensive court coverage defensive play, joined the women’s doubles pair of Ayaka Takahashi/Misaki Matsutomo as the only other Japanese to rank World No. 1. Ayaka Takahashi/Misaki Matsutomo were ranked World No. 1 on October of 2014.
The BWF world rankings were calculated for a period of 52 weeks. In this period, rankings points from the 10 best tournaments were taken into consideration.