Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal on Thursday slipped one place from her career-best position of world number two to the third place in the latest international rankings.
The 20-year-old Saina had made a meteoric rise following her back-to-back title triumphs at the India Open Grand Prix, Singapore Open Super Series and Indonesian Open Super Series to reach the world number two spot.
But a quarterfinal finish at the recently-concluded World badminton Championship in Paris left her one place down the rung at the third position.
Saina has 64791.2637 points, while Xin Wang of China rose to the second spot after finishing second in the World Championship in women’s singles. Compatriot Yihan Wang is still the number one in the ranking.
In March, Saina had attained the fifth position after becoming the first Indian woman to reach the semifinals of the prestigious All England Super Series Championships.
However, she dropped to the sixth position in the subsequent weeks.
Saina’s next engagement will be the Commonwealth Games in Delhi from October 3 to 14, before playing the Asian Games in November.
In the men’s ranking, the Indian trio of Chetan Anand, P Kashyap and Arvind Bhatt were at 17th, 29th and 31th spot respectively, while mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju were at the 13th place.
