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India’s badminton star Saina Nehwal maintains her world number three slot in the latest World Badminton Federation rankings behind the two Chinese powerhouses – Wang Yihan and Li Xuerui. Saina, who won the Denmark Open and capped a runner-up finish at the French Open, is giving the next week’s China Open a miss as she gives rest to her troubled right knee.
The Indian ace is expected to return to competitive action at the Hong Kong Open commencing on November 20.
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu – the country’s second highest ranked singles player after Saina – continued to occupy the 25th position. Sindhu, who had captured the public imagination when she stunned London Olympic gold medallist Li Xuerui of China in the quarterfinals last September’s China Masters, will be appearing in next week’s China Open.
In fact, it was a week in which most of the Indian shuttlers either retained their last week’s rankings or moved up the ladder, save for a few.
India’s top ranked men’s singles shuttler Parupalli Kashyap continues to holds the 25th position, while Ajay Jayaram also retained the 27th ranking. Sourabh Varma also remained at 32nd position, while RMV Gurusaidutt moved one spot up to be ranked 44th.
Even Anand Pawar moved up one slot to occupy the 60th position. Arvind Bhat climbed two spots to take the 75th position, while H. S. Prannoy advanced two spots to be ranked 89th. However, B. Sai Praneeth dropped one spot to be ranked 71st.
Most of the Indian players outside top-100 moved up in rankings. Anup Sridhar jumped 17 places to be ranked 117th following a decent pre-quarterfinal finish at the Bitburger Open.
Old warhorse Chetan Anand – the former India number one – who is on a comeback trial after a long absence from competitive action – climbed 30 places to be ranked 135th, following an impressive semifinal finish at the 37th Yonex Hungarian Open.
