* Indian's loss to Li Xuerui in Malaysia Open semifinal will see her being displaced from World No. 1 rank next week, but things might change a week later * Ace shuttler withdraws from Singapore Open
Saina Nehwal's first taste of being a World No. 1 will last only a week. But she could regain it a week later. This, despite giving the Singapore Open Superseries from April 7-12 a miss.
Saina's 21-13 17-21 20-22 Malaysia Open Superseries Premier semifinal loss on Saturday in an hour and eight minutes to Li Xuerui, the Chinese she displaced from the No. 1 ranking on Thursday, will see the 25-year-old Indian surrender her World No. 1 rank come April 9.
However, Saina could regain her No. 1 rank on April 16 as Xuerui is not participating in the Singapore Open Superseries that is from April 7 to 12. Saina, who has given her entry for the Singapore Open and has been top seeded, has pulled out of the tournament.
The fight among the Nos 1 and 2 ranks in women's singles is so tight that the current order of Saina-Xuerui could become Xuerui-Saina this Thursday and again Saina-Xuerui the following Thursday.
While the rankings are based on the aggregate of 10 best tournaments in a 52-week period, Saina, who currently has 78,541 points from 10 best tournaments, will reach 80,191 points at the end of the Malaysia Open. On the other hand, Xuerui will climb from her current 71,414 points from eight tournaments to a minimum of 80,764 should she finish runner-up on Sunday (she goes to 82,414 if she wins against Marin). Marin, on the other hand, can go to a maximum of 79,578 points if she wins on Sunday and still fall behind Saina.
How things could change the subsequent week is that while Saina will stay at 80,191 points, Xuerui will lose 7,800 points that she logged from last year's Singapore Open, where she was the runner-up. This, as a result of the Chinese not playing there next week. This will take her points below Saina's and even Marin's.
Former badminton international and currently a coach, Uday Pawar, explained about the rankings game and said it depended on how fit one is and not necessarily how good he/she is.
"It is the survival of the fittest. A person can keep playing. But, say for example, Li Xuerui, who was No. 1 for more than 100 weeks until last week, eventually lost her top spot due to recent bad results and injuries. It is how fit you are and how consistently you can do in every tournament, not necessarily how good you are," Pawar said.
"Every tournament you played last year, you have to defend those points by playing this year. If you miss them, you lose those points. It is a very narrow margin among the top three. Currently, Xuerui has the advantage as she has played only eight tournaments before the Malaysia Open in the 52-week period whereas Saina and Marin have more than 10 and the tournaments with high points are considered."
Vimal Kumar, under whom Saina has been training in Bangalore since last September, said he has told her not to think too much about the rankings.
"I have told her ranking points are not the priority. I have all along been saying that she should concentrate on playing consistently."
Vimal confirmed that Saina has withdrawn from the Singapore Open and that she will return to Bangalore on Monday to train for the continental meet, the Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan, China, from April 21-26.
About the semifinal loss to Xuerui, Vimal said: "It was a very good match, a 50:50 game that could have gone either way in the last few points. Saina was a little unfortunate. She had a 12-7 lead in the third game but Li was playing well at the net. The Chinese was playing really good tight net shots."
Saina has lost won only two matches against Xuerui and lost nine including their last five meetings. Saina's last win against Xuerui came in the Indonesia Open in June 2012.
Xuerui and Marin will face each other for the women's singles title on Sunday. Sixth seed Marin downed second-seed Wang Shixian of China 21-17 24-22 in the second semifinal
Semifinal result (Indian only): Women's singles: 3-Saina Nehwal lost to 1-Li Xuerui (CHN) 21-13 17-21 20-22
In the final analysis:
Li Xuerui Semifinal Saina Nehwal
6 Most consecutive points 6
3 Game points 1
114 Total points played 114
56 Total points won 58
Final line-ups (in order or play)
Women's doubles: 3-Luo Ying/ Luo Yu (CHN) vs Chang Ye Na/ Jung Kyung Eun (KOR)
Mixed doubles: 1-Zhang Nan/ Zhao Yunlei (CHN) vs 3-Xu Chen/ Ma Jin (CHN)
Men's singles: 1-Chen Long (CHN) vs 5-Lin Dan (CHN)
Women's singles: 1-Li Xuerui (CHN) vs 6-Carolina Marin (ESP)
Men's doubles: 1-Lee Yong Dae/ Yoo Yeon Seong (KOR) vs 4-Mohammad Ahsan/ Hendra Setiawan (INA)
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