Saina regains World No.1 spot

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. - IANS