Saina breaks into top-five rankings

City girl Saina Nehwal has emulated another citizen Sania Mirza and brought laurels to Hyderabad when her name figured in the list of top five female badminton players in the world.

Saina was ranked at fifth spot of the world rankings after her superb performance in the All England Badminton Championships earlier this month.

This is her career best rankings. Last year she had touched the sixth spot before sliding down in the rankings.

Saina now has 58516.7646 points after All England Badminton Championships and her reaching the semifinals of the All England Super Series Championships.

Incidentally, she was the first Indian woman to reach the semifinal stage of the prestigious Super Series event. She lost to Tine Rasmussen of the Netherlands, but not before earning immense respect and adoration from the world over for her gritty performance.

Her semifinal appearance helped her jump two spots in the rankings

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.