Badminton: PV Sindhu climbs to World No 8; her best ranking since January 2023

India's PV Sindhu climbed two spots to be ranked women's singles world No 8 in the latest BWF World Rankings released on Tuesday.

Sindhu, who was placed world No 10 last week, gained the two spots after her title winning run at the 2026 Japan Open, her career first Super 750 crown on Sunday.

The title win helped Sindhu gain 11,000 points, taking her total rating points to 67,601, which helped her propel past Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong (66,727) and Tomoka Miyazaki (63,646) of Japan.

The world No 8 in the latest list is the highest she has been placed in the BWF women's singles world rankings in over three years.

She was last ranked world No 8 in the list released on 25 January, 2023 before she started to drop down following injuries and poor run of form.

Sindhu's climb to world No 8 puts her in a good spot to earn a seeding at the upcoming 2026 BWF World Championships, which will help her earn a slightly easier path at the global tournament in front of the home crowd in Delhi.

Sindhu will next be in action at the 2026 China Open Super 1000, which gets underway on Tuesday. She'll be up against fellow Indian Unnati Hooda in the opening round of the tournament.

Elsewhere, Lakshya Sen maintained his spot at world No 14 in the men's singles rankings to be the highest ranked Indian in the discipline, while the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, despite their withdrawal midway from the Japan Open, hold on to their world No 4 rank.