New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) India’s Saina Nehwal Thursday jumped one spot to World No.2, coming as a major boost for the star shuttler ahead of the World Championships in Paris from Aug 23.
Saina, who pipped Xin Wang of China in the world badminton ranking charts released Thursday, is now behind top-ranked Chinese Yihan Wang.
The Indian recently won three back-to-back tournaments, including two Super Series titles.
Saina, 20, won the Indian Open Grand Prix, Singapore Open and Indonesian Open.
‘It is a surprise for me and it has come just before the World Championships. In fact, the last one month has been a surprise. I have done consistently well in the last couple of months,’ said Saina.
‘Everything is hapenning fast in my career. The previous months were very tough as well. I am a bit nervous also. Things would be different. Expectations will be high from me and the competition will be tough from now on,’ she said.
Saina, however, said it would be no different once you are in the court.
‘It is the same whether you are ranked number 1 or 100 in world. At international level, whoever is better on the given day will win. If you don’t play well, you don’t win.’
Saina, who has been made the captain of the Indian team for the World Championships in August, said she will give her best.
‘I am happy to be the captain. I have to focus on my game. It’s an individual event. All the players are doing well and their rankings have improved. I can only motivate them to perform well.’
Among other women, Aditi Mutatkar is steady at 33 while Trupti Murgunde is at 49.
In the men’s rankings, the biggest mover was Ajay Jayram, who made it to the semi-finals of the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold last week scoring some stunning upsets. Jayram jumped 10 spots to 55.
Chetan Anand is the highest placed Indian, but slipped one spot to 15 while Parupalli Kashyap moved one place up to 25.
Arvind Bhat climbed one spot to 27 while Guru Sai Dutt slipped two places to 39.
Anand Pawar is steady at 44 and Anup Sridhar dropped two places to 57.
