What was PV Sindhu ranked when she won silver at Rio Olympics? It somehow assumes irrelevance when you register that she beat Wang Yihan, Tai Tzu-ying and Nozomi Okuhara to make finals. That she never reached World No 1 while winning 2 Olympic medals and 5 World Championship medals including a World title, will remain confounding always. But it doesn't blot her legacy one bit. That, India's most recent World No 1s Kidambi Srikanth and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are still searching for their first Olympic medal and second Worlds podium is as boggling. They of course reached World No 1 by winning several Tour titles, and will forever hold that citation of sitting atop the global charts. But as salves go, the top rank might not quite make up for a medal, a keepsake, a high point. Sure, something in the wind learnt their names, but they can't quite say things were never quite the same. This week, Satwik-Chirag beat the World No 1s while themselves being ranked No 27. For the memories imprinted - it's special because they have had a torrid six months past - their march into the Singapore semis will be remembered more starkly than how the rank dipped to 27. Yet, it's a sombre, sobering week - for the first time since 2009, no Indian will be in Top 10 and that low-key hurts the sport which is reeling under stagnation, with top names struggling to make breakthroughs at big events. Lakshya Sen and Satwik-Chirag are grappling with injuries and setbacks, it is unclear if Sindhu is up for the second fight with ageing impediments to movements though her issues seem to be more tactical. But the assurance of a Top 10 holding place for seedings has vamoozed. HS Prannoy and Srikanth are staring at tough draws too, not to mention qualifying grind having plummeted in rankings. Treesa-Gayatri- though with plenty of time on their side and no urgency really in the post-Olympic season - have the perennial pressure of keeping that Top 10 rank, and constantly proving themselves if titles don't fetch up. Women's tennis once faced a scalding phase where the World No 1s were without Grand Slam success, and the consistency in reaching top of rankings only brought them grief and ridicule with constantly being told they had won no Majors. Sindhu's 2019 title more or less made that high of World No 2 or missing the No 1 inconsequential. Men's doubles in badminton has had at least a dozen World No 1s in the last 5 years, and consistency is wretchedly elusive. No one can hold onto World No 1 because forms dip, and so Satwik-Chirag weren’t unduly stressed by dropping out of Top 20. Badminton's relentless circuit means keeping high rankings for years on end needs a constant commitment to hit the high notes - which remains difficult given the punishing grind of back to back competition weeks. It is not uncommon for someone to win a title on Sunday and then exit on Wednesday or Thursday, and scarcely frowned upon even. Some like Viktor Axelsen just naturally prioritised the bulk of Super 1000s and Super 750s, though bunched up tournaments took a toll on their bodies. Even as recovery techniques have improved exponentially, it is highly unlikely anyone stays at the top for seasons together. An Se-young has extended phases of brilliance, but then needs chunks of breaks too. For what it's worth, Chen Yufei, Akane Yamaguchi, Carolina Marin and Tai Tzu-ying have spent a good number of weeks as World No 1, but weren’t unduly stressed about slipping down when heading into any tournaments. However, it needs the sort of mindset and attitude of Satwik-Chirag or Sindhu or even HS Prannoy to convince yourself that draws and seedings don't matter if you are ready for 5-6 days of grind. Prannoy in fact proved rankings are no big deal when he brought down Axelsen at the World Championships in 2023 in quarterfinals. Some would say, Sindhu and Srikanth and even Lakshya Sen are better off playing the Top 3 early in a week, when the exhaustion hasn't compounded. Some of Sindhu's better matches - albeit losses - have come in early rounds, though she would easily trade her resilience of lasting 5 days and maintaining intensity till the end of 2017-2019 for the 'tough-luck defeats'. Opponent Ranking-agnostic all her early career, her inability to beat the big names hurts her now. India being completely out of Top 10 after 16 long years is concerning but the prevalent emotion will be rightfully upbeat with Srikanth making Malaysia finals, and Satwik-Chirag entering weekend warfare at Singapore - business end of tournaments. The truest value of rankings isn't quite where the Indians reach, but what rankings scalps they snare and how deep they get into tournaments. Those calculations figure themselves out, and are best left to AI models. The Indian who will get most tormented by trolls on rankings will be Lakshya Sen, with his batchmate Kunlavut Vitidsarn climbing to World No 1. These things can play on the athlete's minds, but there's just one Stat he ought to remember. The great Lin Dan was World No 1 for 194 weeks; Lee Chong Wei for 349 weeks. Both are modern greats, but everyone knows who was GOAT. Rankings are all very nice, but only titles matter. P.S: Sindhu was ranked World No 10 when she won silver at Rio.
