NEW DELHI: In a departure from the norm, it’s not going to be the Chinese but Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and All England champion Carolina Marin who will be fighting it out for the numero uno ranking in badminton, in the India Open Super Series starting next week.
Both Saina and Carolina will have the opportunity to grab the coveted numero uno status and snap the four-year long Chinese domination when they compete in a strong field at the $275,000 India Open starting at the Siri Fort Sports Complex from Tuesday.
The last time a non-Chinese achieved the World No 1 status was in December, 2010 when Denmark’s Tine Baun had claimed the honour and it would also be a historic first forboth India or Spain as no woman from either country has ever achieved this distinction.
Saina and Carolina tasted success early in the season as the former clinched the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title defeating the Spaniard in the finals in Lucknow.
Carolina, though, avenged the loss by inflicting a painful defeat on the Indian at the prestigious All England summit clash.
Badminton’s world ranking takes into account a player’s 10 best performances over the past 52 weeks. Currently ranked World No 2 with 74381 points behind China’s Li Xuerui (79214 points), Saina has everything in her favour to become the new queen of shuttle sport.
Li, who was runner-up at the last India Open and is not participating this year, will lose 7800 points, dropping her tally to 71414.