Saina regains 2nd place, Kashyap becomes world number 7

New Delhi: London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal regained her second place while Parupalli Kashyap continued his upward progress, earning two places to reach the seventh spot in the latest badminton world ranking on Thursday.

Saina had lost a position to slip to the third spot last week but after a semifinal finish at the All England Championship, the Indian regained her place in the world ranking. London Olympics quarterfinalist Kashyap too was rewarded for a quarterfinal finish at the All England Championship. From world number nine last week, he jumped to the seventh position. Ajay Jayaram was steady at 31st, while RMV Gurusaidutt and Sourabh Verma improved two and four places, respectively to reach 36th and 39th spot. Anand Pawar was the other Indian at the top 50 at 44th spot. Rising women shuttler P V Sindhu remained at 16th position. Saina had beaten Sashina during the 2011 edition of the tournament but she was finding it difficult to negotiate her game last night and could not put up any challenge in the first game, as the world number 35 French raced to a 1-0 lead. In the second game too, Saina was lagging behind 2-5 but the Indian soon got her act together and clawed back, and after a hard fight till 13-13 she managed to reeled off five straight points to carve out a five-point lead and then held on to her game to bounce back. In the decider, Saina didn't allow the French any chance to comeback into the match. Having opened up a 3-0 lead, the Indian kept increasing the gap and sealed the issue in her favour. Kashyap's was an intense battle right from the start as he and his opponent fought tooth and nail to exchange leads till 12-12. After that the German marched ahead with a six-point burst, which helped him to earn the bragging rights. The second game was also a nail-biting issue as Kashyap and Domke went neck and neck till 12-12 once again but this time, it was Kashyap who slowly eked out a narrow 15-12 lead and enjoyed a five game points at one stage before Domke levelled the score. However, the Indian was in no mood to let it go and he bounced back in the contest winning the final two points. In the decider, Kashyap opened up a 5-0 lead and held on to his advantage to seal it comfortably in the end. PTI