Kunlavut Vitidsarn has officially been confirmed as the new world No.1 player after the latest rankings were released on Tuesday by the World Badminton Federation (BWF).
The 24-year-old Thai star has accumulated 97,179 points, surpassing China's Shi Yuqi, who has 95,117 points.
Kunlavut was No.2 before the start of the Singapore Open last week and gained enough points to reach the top ranking after winning his semi-final match at the World Tour Super 750 event.
He capped off a historic weekend by winning the title on Sunday -- his fourth of the year.
Kunlavut, the reigning world and Asian champion and Olympic silver medallist, is the first Thai male player to reach the summit. He is also the first men's world No.1 player born after the year 2000.
Kunlavut is now also No.1 in the Race to Finals with 47,310 points, moving up three spots.
Mixed doubles players Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran have moved up two spots to No.6 in the world, which is their career-high.
The duo began their partnership in October last year and have already won five World Tour titles.
Like Kunlavut, Dechapol and Supissara also won the Singapore Open on Sunday.
Kunlavut will face Wang Tzu-wei of Taiwan in the first round of the US$1,450,000 BWF Indonesia Open in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Dechapol and Supissara will play Dejan Ferdinansyah and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia in their opener.
Winning starts
Supanida Katehong and Pornpawee Chochuwong won their first-round matches at the World Tour Super 1000 event on Tuesday.
Eighth seed Supanida rallied to beat Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj of India 14-21, 21-15, 21-12, while sixth seed Pornpawee beat Chiu Pin-chian of Taiwan 21-18, 21-12.
Mixed pair Ruttanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat advanced with a 21-9, 21-14 win over eighth seeds Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling-fang of Taiwan but women's doubles players Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sukitta Suwachai exited the tournament after losing to China's Liu Shengshu and Tang Ning 12-21, 17-21.
Women's singles player Busanan Ongbamrunphan bowed out after losing to top seed An Se-Young of South Korea 14-21, 11-21.
China's top seed Shi edged Lakshya Sen of India 21-11, 20-22, 21-15 in his men's singles opener.