Less than two years after they started competing on the senior circuit, Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning have climbed atop the BWF World Rankings.
The Chinese duo are among the youngest in recent times to be ranked No.1 in women’s doubles. Liu is 20, while Tan is 21.
They achieved the top ranking while enjoying a stellar season, with the 9350 points from their second-placed finish at the VICTOR Denmark Open 2024 helping them overtake Olympic champions Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan, who slipped to No.3 as they haven’t competed as a pair since winning the gold at Paris 2024. In second place are Korea’s Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee, who made the semifinals in Denmark.
Liu Sheng Shu (right) and Tan Ning
Liu, having won the BWF World Junior Championships title in October 2022 (with Wang Ting Ge) immediately made an impact in her first senior tournament the following month – winning the PETRONAS Malaysia International Series 2022 with Tan Ning. The meteoric rise continued with their second event, and first HSBC BWF World Tour tournament, as they won the DAIHATSU Indonesia Masters 2023. Their first year on the circuit would fetch them five titles, including the YONEX French Open 2023.
This year too they started on a perfect note, winning the PETRONAS Malaysia Open 2024. Since then they have won three more titles while featuring in six finals. Notably, they reached the final at Paris 2024 in their first Olympics, following which they won the DAIHATSU Japan Open and the CLASH ROYALE Arctic Open.
Speaking about their new status as the top pair, Liu sounded a note of caution.
“We want to keep getting better. We don’t have time to think about being No.1. As we play more and more, our opponents can prepare against us, so we have to improve our skills.”
Rin Iwanaga (right) and Kie Nakanishi
The pair that beat them in the Denmark Open final, Rin Iwanaga/Kie Nakanishi, stayed at No.6. The Denmark Open was their fifth title of the year and first Super 750 of their career.
In the top 10 are four Chinese pairs – including Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu (No.5) and Li Yi Jing/Luo Xu Min (No.9), two Japanese pairs (Iwanaga/Nakanishi and No.4. Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida), three Korean pairs (No.2 Baek/Lee, No.8 Jeong Na Eun/Kim Hye Jeong and No.10 Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong) and one Malaysian pair (No.7 Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan).
Meanwhile, Korea’s An Se Young reclaimed her top spot in women’s singles after two weeks at No.2. An’s runner-up finish in Denmark helped her vault past Chen Yu Fei, who hasn’t played a tournament since Paris 2024.
China are top-ranked in four of the five categories. Shi Yu Qi remained at No.1 in men’s singles ahead of Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, while in men’s doubles, Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang’s 11,000 points from their title win in Denmark saw them strengthen their top position. Olympic champions Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong also retained their No.1 position in mixed doubles despite not competing since Paris 2024.
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