Cracking the top-16 will be the focus as Indian shuttlers compete in the Malaysia Masters BWF Super 500 tournament which begins in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
Only four Indians - PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty - qualified for the Tokyo Olympics and the scene doesn't look different this time around.
The Olympic qualification period kicked off with the Sudirman Cup and will end on April 28, 2024. For top badminton countries like India, two singles shuttlers in the top-16 of world rankings by April 28, 2024 and two doubles teams in the top-8 will earn a ticket to Paris.
As on today, only PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy are in the top-16 and Satwik-Chirag are in top-8.
The next best ranked players after Prannoy are world No.22 Lakshya Sen and No.23 Kidambi Srikanth. Prannoy, ranked No. 7 should do well in at least 10 tournaments until April 28 to protect his rankings while Lakshya and Srikanth will try to score maximum points in any 10 tournaments to get into the top-16.
As only two players from each NOC will be allowed, if they are in top-16, the competition will be tight among the three as Prannoy too have to defend a number of points he earned in the last few months.
It may not be that difficult for Sindhu, who is ranked No.11. The two-time Olympic medallist needs a few quarterfinal and semifinal finishes and she is capable of achieving that.
After Sindhu, the other Indians in the rankings list are Saina Nehwal (No.36), Aakarshi Kashyap (No.39) and Malvika Bansod (No.40). Only a very strong show in the next 11 months will help them to get into the top-16 bracket.
With Saina skipping Malaysia Masters and some other tournaments before this, it would be very difficult for the first Indian badminton medallist to qualify. Aakarshi and Malvika need to punch above their weight to improve 20-odd places in the world rankings.
Satwik-Chirag, who were unlucky to miss out on an Olympic medal last time, are considered as sureshot qualifiers for the quadrennial games. They were the only team to beat eventual gold medallists in Tokyo and are by far the best performers from India.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila are ranked 23 now and should improve 15 rungs to harbour any hopes of making a Paris trip. But that looks pretty difficult as the top-10 is packed with top performing teams.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila are ranked 23 now and should improve 15 rungs to have any hopes of making a Paris trip. But that looks pretty difficult as the top-8 is packed with talented teams.
Women's doubles team of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are ranked No.15 and can make it to the Olympics if they manage to win a couple of tournaments and do well in the rest.
