Saina drops to World No.4
New Delhi : India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal dropped two places to No.4 in the latest release of the Badminton World Federation rankings.
The Hyderabadi, who lost Friday in the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open Super Series, has been going through a relatively rough patch this season. Without a single title in 2013, the 23-year-old dropped to No.4 in the women’s singles rankings released Thursday.
City-mate P.V. Sindhu, who pulled out of the ongoing Singapore Open due to an injury, also dropped a place to 12th.
Though only two Indians feature in the women’s singles top-50 rankings, the men’s singles shuttlers are doing much better with as many as seven of them in the top 50.
Parupalli Kashyap fell a place to 11th while R.M.V. Gurusaidutt and Ajay Jayaram retained 23rd and 25th in the men’s singles.
Sourabh Verma, who hails from Dhar in Madhya Pradesh, leapt five places to 37 while Mumbai boy Anand Pawar retained 38th.
Talented youngster K. Srikkanth, who recently won the Thailand Open, jumped another two places to 42.
B. Sai Praneeth, who sent legendary Indoensian shuttler Taufik Hidayat into retirement last week, made a remarkable jump of 16 places to 45. Sai Praneeth also beat World No.4 Yun Hu of Hong Kong earlier this week in Singapore.
No Indian shuttler, however, figures in the top 25 of the men’s, women’s or mixed doubles.
File Photo : AFP