Saina creates history, breaks into top five

Zeenews Bureau New Delhi: India’s ace women’s badminton player Saina Nehwal on Thursday created history as she became the first ever Indian woman to break into the top-5 of the Badminton rankings. Saina’s feat comes after she became the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of the recently concluded prestigious All England Open. Although she lost in the semi-finals of the tournament, it is an achievement that will give her a lot of confidence for the upcoming international tournaments. Riding on her fantastic show, the Indian gained a couple of spots in the latest list with 58516.7646 points in her kitty. Chinese shuttlers dominate the top half of the women`s rankings with Yihan Wang leading the pack followed by Wang Lin, Xin Wang and Jiang Yanjiao respectively. In the men`s rankings, Chetan Anand dropped a rung to 10th but P Kashyap gained one spot to be 29th. Arvind Bhat remained static at 36th but Anup Sridhar slipped to 40th, a loss of one position. In the mixed doubles rankings, Jwala Gutta and V Diju`s pair slipped one spot to 10th in the latest list. Saina also had a good 2009 where she won the Indonesian Open Super Series Tournament and reached the semi-finals of the World Super Series Masters. She also reached the quarters in a number of tourneys including the World Championships, Malaysian Open, Denmark Open, French Super Series, Swiss Open, Indian Open and Singapore Open in 2009. After hearing the news, an elated Saina said that she is feeling as good as ever and is rearing to go. “I am feeling good, fresh and raring to go,” she said. Saina also said that this year she would be concentrating more on training and playing less tournaments to maintain her fitness. “I would train more and play less this year to keep myself injury free.” Born in the city of Hisar in Haryana, Saina is training under former All England champion Pullela Gopichand at his academy in Hyderabad.