Saina is world number two

Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal on Wednesday reached just a step away from her stated goal of becoming the world's number one player with a career-best second in the international rankings.

The 20-year old badminton ace who has been winning back-to-back championships of late by netting the Indian Open Grand Prix, Singapore Open Super Series and Indonesian Open Super Series had risen to number three last month.

Thanks to her recent performances, she now has 64791.2637 points and is just behind Chinese Yihan Wang. Xin Wang, also of China, is currently ranked third.

"I am very happy to achieve the world number two so soon in my career.The last three wins have really helped me. It is a great feeling but I feel my priority still will be to win more tournaments for India rather than focussing on ranking," Saina told Indian media.

"It will be difficult to hold on to the ranking but I hope to continue my hard work and win more titles and become the number one player soon," said the Hyderabadi shuttler, who is down with fever and cold.

Saina climbed to the fifth ranking in March after becoming the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the prestigious All England Super Series Championships. She then dropped to number six before the rise began.

The champion shuttler's next major outing will be leading the Indian challenge at the World Badminton Championship in Paris in August, and the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi followed by the Asian Games.
 

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