New Delhi, Dec 25 (IANS): Continuing his upward trend, India's leading male shuttler Kidambi Srikanth jumped two places to take a career-high fourth position in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings Thursday.

With this move, the 21-year-old, became only the third Indian to break into the men's singles top-five rankings. Legendary Praksh Padukone (No.1) and Pulella Gopichand (No.4) had earlier been in the top five.

At the end of 2013, he was ranked 47th in the world.

After winning the China Open Superseries Premier where he defeated five-time world champion Lin Dan, he entered the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open as well as in the recently-concluded season-ending BWF Superseries.

He entered the event in Dubai as World No.6 but he registered victories over Kento Momota, Tommy Sugiarto which catapulted him to World No.4.

Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal retained her fourth position while P.V, Sindhu was also stagnant at 11th.