Headlines
Saina regains World No.1 spot
New Delhi, Aug 20
Despite losing the World
Championships final in Jakarta on Sunday, ace Indian shuttler Saina
Nehwal regained the top spot in women's singles in the latest rankings
of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) released on Thursday.
The
25-year-old Saina rose a place to overtake her conqueror in the summit
clash, Carolina Marin of Spain, to once again be ranked No.1. The
reigning World Champion dropped to No.2 while Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu
Ying overtook reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China to be No.3.
"Very
happy to be world number 1 again. I would like to thank my coach Vimal
Kumar sir and my parents for the support," tweeted Saina, attaching a
photograph of herself wearing the Worlds silver medal and standing with
her parents.
On the contrary, in spite of a quarterfinal finish
last week, double World Championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu
dropped a spot to be ranked No.14.
An early exit at the Worlds
resulted in Kidambi Srikanth dropping a spot to No.4 in the men's
singles rankings while H.S. Prannoy retained the No.12 spot. However,
2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap jumped two
places to be ranked No.8.
Meanwhile, a quarterfinal finish in the
Indonesian capital also helped Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa reach
their career-best ranking of No.10 in women's doubles. The 2011 World
Championships bronze medallist have lately been in form, having won the
Canada Open and reaching the final of the US Open.
However, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy dropped five places to be at No.22 in men's doubles rankings.
There are no Indians in the top-25 of the mixed doubles rankings.