All England Championships 2018 | Kidambi Srikanth could end tournament as World No. 1

After enjoying the best year of his career, where he won four Superseries events last year, Srikanth now has the chance of making it to the top of the BWF rankings early this year. He had the chance to do the same last year as well but injuries meant that he had to pull out of the China Open where he could have picked up a host of points. Axelsen, who reached the quarter-finals of the competition last year will lose out on points this year after he had to withdraw from the event due to injury. 

If the Indian is able to win the event, he will, in all likelihood, end the week as the top-ranked player in the world. However, even a quarterfinal appearance might be enough to take him to the pinnacle of the rankings, as he will then have to worry about where Lee Chong Wei, who won the tournament last year, Chen Long, who was ousted in the second round, and Son Wan Ho, who pulled out due to injury in the first match, end up.

Currently, Srikanth has 75695 ranking points to his name and is 1229 points behind Lee Chong Wei, who trails Axelsen by 2656 points.