Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal will be making her return to the sport of badminton after suffering from a knee injury during her campaign in the last 2016 Rio Olympic Games  that made her missed a number of tournaments.

Nehwal is expected to play against Thai shuttler Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who currently ranks No. 13 in the world, in the first round of the BWF World Superseries Premier Thaihot China Open that will be held in the city of Fuzhou in the province of Fujian. The 2012 London Games women's singles bronze medalist will then face the newly crowned Yonex French Open champion He Bingjiao of China provided she passes through the opening round, according to the report of the BadmintonPlanet.

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The 26-year-old native of Hisar, Haryana, has to undergo a surgery on her right knee to remove a spur, which had been broken and was pinching the adjoining tendon.

"I was not able to walk, couldn't bend my knee or even climb the stairs. It was pain everywhere when I tried to straighten my knee during sleep," Nehwal said pertaining to her experience while enduring the pain of her injury.

Basing from the latest women's singles world ranking result in the official website of the BWF, Nehwal is currently ranked sixth in the world. The Indian badminton ace has garnered a total of 70,069 ranking points in the 11 competitions that she participated in this season.

Nehwal was just 5008 ranking points behind Japanese Nozomi Okuhara, who is the present third-top female shuttler in the planet and just 2772 points away from the current world no. 5 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

Prior to her unwelcomed knee injury, the multi-titled Indian badminton player had won the 2016 XiamenAir Australian Badminton Open last June.  Nehwal registered impressive straight victories until the semi-final round of the Sydney-based Superseries event until she claimed her first title of the year after defeating Sun Yu of China in three sets.

Tagsbwf rankings, bwf, saina nehwal, thaihot china open, BWF World Superseries