Rising shuttler Sourabh breaks into top 50

Rising Indian shuttler Sourabh Varma, on Thursday, cracked into the top 50 in the latest World badminton rankings following his superb performance at the Syed Modi Grand Prix gold tournament last week.

Sourabh, who finished runner-up at the season-ending tournament, jumped 22 ranking places to be placed at the 50th position in the ranking.

The 20-year-old from Madhya Pradesh had a dream run in the prestigious tournament as he beat higher-ranked players such as Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia, Yun Hu of Hong Kong and Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand en route to the final where he lost to former Olympic and World champion Taufik Hidayat in Lucknow.

"This is my first year in international circuit and I am happy to break into the top 50. I had calculated during the Syed Modi tournament that I will hopefully make it to the top 50. Now my target is to reach the top 30 next year," Sourabh said.

"Gopi sir has told me that I have improved and I have to keep working hard. I have learned a lot from the mistakes that I committed during the tournament. With experience, I can only improve," added the Bahrain International challenger winner.

Top Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continued to hold the fourth position in the women's ranking, while among other men's singles players, RMV Gurusaidutt gained three places to be at the 40th place.

P Kashyap and Ajay Jayaram were at the 27th and 28th position.

V Diju and Jwala Gutta jumped four places to 14th spot after their semifinal finish at Syed Modi, while commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa were also at the 14th position.