On April 2, 2015 Saina Nehwal officially became the World No. 1. She celebrated the win with a convincing win over her unseeded chinese counterpart Xue Yao in the second round of Malaysian Open Super Series 2015. Saina has lost last year to the chinese opponent at the same tournament last year. Saina now plays the quarterfinal against another chinese Sun Yu.
Saina Nehwal is the second non-chinese after Tine Baun to reach the World No. 1 ranking at the Badminton Women’s Singles event. Tine Baun (Denmark) has reached No. 1 ranking in 2008.
Saina credits her rise in the rankings to the new coach Vimal Anand. Earlier, Gopinath used to be her coach. After a long association with him, Saina decided to train under Vimal Anand at Banglaore. The change has certainly showed better results for her as she has kept on reaching semifinals and started winning titles more often now after a slump in her performance.
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