Saina Nehwal zooms into seventh heaven

HYDERABAD: Surprised. Elated. These words could well describe Saina Nehwal's reaction on her elevation to the seventh place in world rankings.
The star of Indian badminton has been making waves for a while now but her latest achievement, albeit off the court, has taken even the Hyderabadi by surprise.
The rankings were released by the Badminton World Federation late on Thursday."I was ranked 10th last week and after the good performance in the Sudirman Cup early this month, I thought I could reach the ninth spot. I never expected to be ranked seventh," Saina told TOI.
Incidentally, Saina is placed above defending world champion Zhu Lin (No.8) and former World No.1 and world champion Xi Xingfang (No.9).
"After breaking into the top 10 last year my next target was top-five by the end of 2009. But reaching seventh in such a short time is unbelievable."
Aditi Mutatkar, who is ranked 35, is the next-best Indian after Saina in women's singles. In men's singles, Chetan Anand remained at No.12, while Arvind Bhatt and P Kashyap improved two rungs to reach 24 and 31 respectively.