Kuala Lumpur: After claiming the sixth Indonesia Open title of his career by downing Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 17-21, 21-19, 21-17 at the Indonesia Open 3 weeks ago, badminton maestro Lee Chong Wei cemented his status as the world’s top ranked men’s badminton player on Thursday.
In the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, the Malaysian star remained No. 1 and the rest of the top 10 holds steady after last week’s rankings.
After regaining the World No. 1 spot, Lee was guaranteed that he would not have to face World No. 2 Chen Long until the men’s singles final at the Rio Olympics, should they both make it.
Therefore, there’s a 50-50 chance of either Lee Chong Wei or Chen Long will face two time Olympic champion Lin Dan before the final.
22-year-old Denmark player Viktor Axelsen will make his Olympic debut as the No. 4 seed while another Denmark player Jan Jorgensen would be the No. 5 seed in Rio.
There was no change in the top 10 women’s singles rankings over the past week, with Carolina Marin held on to the top spot with 83,680 points, followed by Wang Yihan, Li Xuerui, Ratchanok Intanon, and Nozomi Okuhara
Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong remained the clear men’s doubles World No. 1 with 94,079 points. World No. 2 Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan were 21,239 points behind, followed by Kim Gi Jung/Kim Sa Rang. China’s Zhang Nan/Fu Haifeng marginally edging Chai Biao/Hong Wei to claim the fourth spot.
In women’s doubles, Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi, Tang Yuanting/Yu Yang, Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei, Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii and Jung Kyung Eun/Shin Seung Chan rounded out the top five.
There was no movement at the top 5 of the mixed rankings as well, with Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei continued their domination at World No. 1, Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na retained the second position, while Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir, Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen, Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto were in No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 spots.
