Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal climbed to a career-best second in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released on Thursday.
Saina gained a rung to be a second with 80091.7444 points behind top-placed Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China who has 94626.7153 points.
The 22-year-old also produced a dominant performance to cruise into the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Open Super Series with a straight-game victory over Hong Kong's Pui Yin Yip.
She didn’t break much sweat as she brushed aside her opponent 21-12 21-9 in a lop-sided match that lasted only half an hour. Saina, who had reached her career best world no 2 in December 2010 for the first time, was lagging behind initially but she rode on her 12 smash winners to tame Pui Yin Yip, who played well at the nets.Kashyap gains a rank, but exits
In the men’s list, Olympic quarter-finalist Parupalli Kashyap also headed northwards as he reached a career-high 10th. Kashyap, who was 11th in the previous rankings, has 51986.6900 points and is the only Indian in the top-25.
However, he went down fighting to sixth-seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 17-21 14-21 in the second round of the men’s singles event.
{{/usCountry}}However, he went down fighting to sixth-seed Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 17-21 14-21 in the second round of the men’s singles event.
{{/usCountry}}Among other prominent players, P V Sindhu rose a rung to 16th with 43116.8667 points.