Saina no longer World No. 1, concedes top spot to Carolina Marin

Saina Nehwal lost her World No. 1 ranking to Carolina Marin of Spain, in the latest Badminton World Federation released on Thursday, 22 October.

Saina's performances in her last two tournaments - The Japan Open and Denmark Open - where she lost to Minatsu Mitani of Japan in the second round of both led to her losing the top spot and dropping to No. 2 in the world rankings.

She was, however, victorious over Mitani in the French Open as she claimed a 21-19, 21-16 win in the second round. Saina now faces Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the quarter finals on 23 October.

PV Sindhu remained unmoved at 13th spot, despite appearing in the final of the Denmark Open last Sunday.

In men's singles, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and H.S. Prannoy all dropped in rankings. Srikanth slid one spot to sixth, and current CWG champion Parupalli Kashyap slipped two places to tenth.

H.S. Prannoy also went down a position to seventeenth, despite his win against Lin Dan of China on Wednesday in the French Open.

Saina Nehwal now remains the only Indian player still in contention at this year's French Open.