Fri Aug 05 2011, 01:32 hrs

Five years after Saina Nehwal first arrived on the world scene, India broke into the top-10 in the Badminton World Federation’s maiden World Team Rankings on Wednesday.

Riding on Nehwal’s performances (earning India a major chunk of the 1200 ranking points for women’s singles), and on the back of decent results in team events like Thomas and Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup, India made the top-10 cut (7450 pts) in the first-ever quantifying of a nation’s standing on the world stage. China expectedly occupied the top-spot with an all-round accumulation of points in both singles and the three doubles (men’s, women’s and mixed) events, while most East Asian powerhouses — Korea (2nd), Indonesia (4th) and Malaysia (6th) as well as Thailand (9th) were ranked above India.