Saina Nehwal seeded 5th for Rio Olympics 2016

Bengaluru, July 21: India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal was today (July 21) seeded 5th in the women's singles for the Rio Olympics 2016. PV Sindhu is the 9th seed while two-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain is the top seed.

Full list of Indian athletes for Olympics

The seedings for the Rio Games were announced today based on the world rankings as on Thursday (July 21). The singles categories of men and women have 13 seeds each.

File photo: Saina poses with her Australian Open title this year

In the men's category, Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei is the number one seed. India's Kidambi Srikanth is seeded 9th. (Rio is toughest for me: Saina)

"The seedings are based on today's (21 July 2016) World Rankings for the final confirmed Olympic qualifiers, and will be used for the draw on Tuesday 26 July, 2016," Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced today.

"The Men's Singles draw will consist of 41 players in 13 groups while, in Women's Singles, 40 competitors will be divided into 13 groups; each group will have one seed. The draw in doubles will have four groups of four pairs; each group will include a seeded pair," BWF said in a press release.

Saina, who will be playing in her 3rd Olympics, won a bronze medal in the last edition in 2012 in London. She is currently 5th in world rankings. Sindhu is ranked 10th in the world. Srikanth is world number 11.

India will be represented by 7 players in badminton at Rio Games. Saina, Sindhu, Srikanth, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, Manu Atthri and Sumeet Reddy Buss are the participants.

Seedings for Rio Olympics

Men's Singles

1. Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)

2. Chen Long (China)

3. Lin Dan (China)

4. Viktor Axelsen (Denmark)

5. Jan Jorgensen (Denmark)

6. Chou Tien Chen (Chinese Taipei)

7. Tommy Sugiarto (Indonesia)

8. Son Wan Ho (Korea)

9. Kidambi Srikanth (India)

10. Hu Yun (Hong Kong)