Saina breaks into top-five of world badminton rankings

New Delhi, March 18 : India's top badminton player Saina Nehwal cracked into the top-five of world rankings with her semi-final finish at the All England Championships.

Saina jumped two places to be at the world no.5, surpassing her previous best of No.6 that she achieved in 2009. Saina surprised everyone this month by becoming the first Indian woman to qualify for the All England semi-finals where she lost to Tine Rasmussen of Denmark.

Saina has had a great run since making the quarterfinals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Last year, she became the first Indian woman to win a Super Series event at the Indonesian Open. She followed it up by winning the Syed Modi Grand Prix event in Lucknow.

In the men's rankings, Chetan Anand slipped one spot to 10th but P. Kashyap gained one spot to be 29th. Arvind Bhat remained at 36th while Anup Sridhar slipped one place to 40th.

In the mixed doubles rankings, Jwala Gutta and V. Diju slipped one spot to 10th.