Seventeen-year-old badminton star Anupama Upadhyaya became the new world No 1, replacing India’s Tasnim Mir in the junior women’s category at the top. Anupama is the sixth Indian teen to achieve this feat after Aditya Sharma in 2014, Siril Verma (2016), Lakshya Sen (2017), Tasnim Mir (2022) and Sankar Muthusamy Subramaniam last month.
Anupama is only the second Indian girl after Tasnim to top the rankings. The Panchkula girl, a product of Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, has now set her sights on the senior category. There are four Indians in the top 10 with Tasnim at No 2, Anwesha Gowda (No 6) and exciting prospect Unnati Hooda at No 9. Thrilled with the feat, Anupama said that her next target is to break into top 40 of senior rankings. She is now No 63.
Coach Vimal Kumar said that she should now focus on the senior level. “It’s creditable but my take on this is we must look at doing well at the senior level. Priority should be towards that,” he said.
Prannoy No1 on World Tour rankings: HS Prannoy’s consistency over the last few months has been rewarded as he became No 1 in the Race to BWF World Tour Finals rankings. Prannoy has 58,090 points and is ahead of world champion Viktor Axelsen.
