Nguyen Thuy Linh is being closely pursued by Thailand's badminton prodigy on the world rankings.

Vietnam's top badminton player continues to maintain her position within the world's top 30.

Vietnam's top badminton player, Nguyen Thuy Linh, retains her ranking in the latest BWF (Badminton World Federation) world rankings updated today, March 17.

Accordingly, Thuy Linh remains in the 26th position in the women's singles world rankings with 45,980 points—no changes whatsoever. The "beauty queen of Vietnamese badminton" is about 5,000 points behind the top 20, while also maintaining a similar gap from positions outside the top 30.

However, without good results in upcoming tournaments, Thuy Linh could easily drop in ranking as competitors are "breathing down her neck" right behind her—especially Pitchamon Opatniputh, considered the future of Thai badminton and who previously defeated the Vietnamese representative at the Indonesia Masters 2026. which took place before the Lunar New Year.

Pitchamon currently holds the 27th world ranking—just one spot behind Thuy Linh with a negligible point difference. The player born in 2007 moved up one rank compared to last week, pushing Unnati Hooda (India) down to the 28th position.

Last week, Pitchamon participated in the Super 350 Swiss Open 2026 held in Basel, Switzerland. She excellently defeated Chiu Pin-chian (Taipei, China) with a decisive score before losing to Putri Kusuma Wardani (Indonesia).

Similarly, Thuy Linh also participated in this tournament and stopped in the second round against Japan's young star, Tomoka Miyazaki. In her opening match, the player from Phu Tho province struggled to defeat Yvonne Li (Germany) after three games.

This week, Nguyen Thuy Linh and Pitchamon Opatniputh will both participate in the Orleans Masters 2026 held in France. They are expected to face players from Taipei, China—Lin Hsiang-ti and Chiu Pin-chian respectively.

Lin Hsiang-ti is not an unfamiliar opponent for Thuy Linh.The two players have met four times—the most recent being in the opening match of the Indonesia Masters in January, with the Vietnamese representative holding the advantage with three victories.

The match between Nguyen Thuy Linh and Lin Hsiang-ti in the first round of the Orleans Masters 2026 is scheduled to take place on March 18, Vietnam time.