Saina Nehwal slips to 6th in BWF ranking

New Delhi: A quarterfinal loss at the All England Championship saw Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal slip three places down the rung to the sixth spot in the latest BWF world ranking here on Thursday.

Saina, who turned 26 today, went through injuries last year and missed out on a few tournaments this season, including the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and South Asian Games in January and February respectively.

The Olympic bronze medallist, who had finished runners-up at the 2015 All England Championship, lost to Tai Tzu Ying in straight games in the quarterfinals. The Indian now has 73,222 points.

Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, P V Sindhu improved a place to reach the 11th spot.

In men's singles, Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap were static at the 10th and 17th spot, while Ajay Jayaram improved a place to be at the 20th spot. H S Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth dropped and gained three places respectively to be at the 27th and 34th spot respectively.

Young Sameer Verma, who lost in the second round of All England championship, jumped six places to be at the 36th place.

Indian men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy surged one place to the 19th spot, while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa sunk a spot to World No. 15.