Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal slipped a rung from her career-best position of world No 2 in the latest international badminton rankings released on Thursday.
The 20-year-old had made a meteoric rise following back-to-back title triumphs at the India Open Grand Prix, Singapore Open Super Series and Indonesian Open Super Series to reach the No 2 spot. But a quarter-final finish at the recently-concluded World Championships in Paris placed her a rung lower at No 3.
Saina has 64791.2637 points, while Xin Wang of China rose to second spot after finishing second in the women's singles at the World Championships. Yihan Wang, also of China, is still No 1.
In March, Saina had attained the No 5 ranking after becoming the first Indian woman to reach the semi-finals of the prestigious All England Super Series Championships. However, she dropped to six in subsequent weeks.
Her next engagement is the all-important Commonwealth Games in Delhi from October 3 to 14, before the Asian Games in November.
In the men's ranking, the Indian trio of Chetan Anand, P Kashyap and Arvind Bhatt are placed at 17, 29 and 31 respectively, while the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju is ranked No 13.
