Saina Nehwal rises to world No. 2 in rankings

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal jumped one place to a career-best second in the latest international rankings. "I am very happy to achieve the world number two so soon in my career. The last three wins have really helped me. It is a great feeling but I feel my priority still will be to win more tournaments for India rather than focussing on ranking," Saina said.

"It will be difficult to hold on to the ranking but I hope to continue my hard work and win more titles and become the number one player soon," said the Hyderabadi shuttler. Saina's father Harvir Singh also expressed happiness and hoped her daughter can continue her good work for the country. "God has been kind. It is a marvellous achievement. I hope she can continue to work hard and win more laurels for the country," Harvir Singh said.

Saina happens to be the first Indian woman to reach the quarter finals at the Olympic Games when she upset world number five and fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller. In the quarter-finals Saina lost a nail biting 3-gamer to world number 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti. In September 2008, she won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open 2008 beating Li Ya Lydia Cheah of Malaysia 21-8 21-19. She was also named The Most Promising Player in 2008 and had reached the world super series semifinals in the same year.

On 21 June 2009, she became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series title, the most prominent badminton series of the world by winning the Indonesia Open. Saina is on the par with the likes of Prakash Padukone and her mentor Pullela Gopichand who both won the all England championships which are of similar status to the super series. In August 2009 she reached the quarterfinals of world championship losing to the second seed Lin Wang. Saina Nehwal was rewarded with Arjuna award in August, 2009 and her coach Gopichand was also rewarded with Dronacharya award at the same time. She has been signed up by Olympic Gold Quest to support her in fulfilling her dream of winning the Olympic gold medal. She was awarded with Padma Shri award in January 2010.