Saina Nehwal regains World No 1 spot in latest badminton rankings

Saina Nehwal is back where she belongs – at the top of the BWF women’s singles rankings.

The new rankings were released today and Saina has leapfrogged her nemesis, Li Xuerui, to take back the No. 1 spot. Saina moved up from No. 2 while Xuerui fell to No. 3, with World and All England champion Carolina Marin also rising one place to take the No. 2 spot and split the pair.

All three skipped last week’s Singapore Open, so the ranking is a reflection of their previous results over the ranking period rather than new performances.

Saina has been in tremendous form this year, having won the Indian Open and the Syed Modi International and finishing second in the Yonex All-England Open, where she lost in the final to Marin.

She also reached the semi-finals of the Malaysian Open, where she lost to Xuerui

Bedeviled by injuries and poor form, Saina had dropped to 9th in the rankings in June, 2014. Frustrated and stuck, Saina made a bold decision to switch coaches from P Gopichand to Vimal Kumar.

Since then the 25-year-old has steadily climbed back up the rankings. She ended last year at No. 4 after winning the China Open and has carried her new found form into 2015.

She got to No. 1 for the first time by reaching the Indian Open final last month and capped a great week by becoming the first Indian to win the Indian Open. Her reign lasted only a week, though, with Xuerui wresting back the top spot by beating Saina in the Malaysia Open semi-final.

While Saina and Xuerui have flipflopped at the top over the last three weeks, the hottest player in the sport right now is Marin. She beat Saina in the final of the All-England and Xuerui in the final of the Malaysia Open and is the reigning World and European champion to boot.

The battle between the “Big Three” for badminton’s top honours should be fun to watch over the next few years.