Teenage shuttler in top 30

Saina Nehwal is on a high. The 16-year-old shuttler has become the youngest Indian ever to break into the top-30 of the world rankings.

Saina Nehwal is on a high. The 16-year-old shuttler has become the youngest Indian ever to break into the top-30 of the world rankings.

The amiable Hyderabadi is elated at having achieved this feat, which is doubly creditable because she has not completed even a year on the International Badminton Federation (IBF) circuit.

Speaking to HT from Hyderabad, Saina said she had not expected to break into the top-30 so early in her career. Incidentally, Aparna Popat holds the record for the highest rank achieved by an Indian woman badminton player — she reached a high of 21 in 2000, and clung to that spot for nearly three weeks.

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