Saina Nehwal slips to 3rd in rankings, P Kashyap up to 9th

New Delhi: Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal slipped down a place to be ranked third while Parupalli Kashyap jumped two places to be ninth in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released Thursday.

Saina, who turns 23 on March 17, was overtaken by World Champion Yihan Wang in the women's singles rankings. However, Saina has a great chance of overtaking her at the ongoing All England Open Badminton Championships as both Wang and Olympic champion Li Xuerui were knocked out of the Premier Super Series tournament on Wednesday.

City-mate P.V. Sindhu retained her 16th position and is the only other Indian woman in the top 50. London Olympics quarterfinalist Kashyap leapt two places in the men's singles rankings to equal his career-best ranking of ninth while Mumbai lad Ajay Jayaram jumped a place to 31st. Rising shuttler R.M.V. Gurusaidutt dropped to 38th while Madhya Pradesh's Sourabh Verma retained 43rd.

Saina, who turns 23 on March 17, was overtaken by World Champion Yihan Wang in the women\'s singles rankings.

However, Mumbai's Anand Pawar made an impressive jump of six places to be 45th. In mixed doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona moved two places up the ladder to 29th while Jwala Gutta, who returned at All England after an eight-month sabbatical, dropped two places to 41 with partner V. Diju.

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