The 25-year-old was officially crowned as the No.1 after Badminton World Federation released its weekly rankings on Thursday.
However, Indian men failed to come to the party as they suffered straight games losses against Chinese opponents. Top ranked Indian Kidambi Srikanth went down to Tian Houwei 14-21, 18-21 while Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap proved no match for world champion Chen Long 10-21, 6-21.
Indonesia Masters champion HS Prannoy too suffered similar fate on the same court. Prannoy failed to cause any discomfort to five-time world and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan. The Chinese legend broke free in the second half leaving no chance for Prannoy.
Women's doubles duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa experienced another early exit. They went down fighting against sixth seeds Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii of Indonesia 23-21, 8-21, 17-21.
The straight-game defeat of Srikanth was unexpected. Srikanth was erratic on Wednesday but looked good against Houwei.
However, Houwei was at his retrieving best as he hardly gave any space for Srikanth. And played some brilliant smashes at crucial junctures. Nine years after she started playing at the senior level Saina secured the top rank for the first time.
Though she came as close as No. 2 in 2010, she slipped to No. 9 before regaining the No. 2 rank last month. Saina needs a strong performance at Malaysia to maintain her ranking.
A good show by Olympic champion Li Xuerui or world champion Carolina Marin will affect Saina's rank. But Saina looked in great touch during her 30-minute demolition of Yao.
She got off to a 4-9 lead and never looked back. Though Yao came as close as 11-12, Saina looked comfortable throughout the game. The Indian had in fact avenged last year Malaysia Open loss against Yao with this victory.
She will now face China's Sun Yu in the quarterfinals. Saina easily defeated Sun Yu at the All England and may not find it difficult on Friday.
Meanwhile, the women's singles will witness a mouth-watering clash when Xuerui faces former world champion Wang Yihan in the quarterfinals. If she wins her quarterfinal, Saina will meet one of these greats on Saturday.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=Wang Yihan,Saina Nehwal,Jwala Gutta,Carolina Marin,Badminton World Federation
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