Malaysia's current top woman player Ratchanok Intanon's world No.1 status is likely to be short-lived after her stunning 21-17 16-21 17-21 loss to the unseeded Sayaka Sato of Japan, forcing the fourth-seeded Thai to crash out in the second round of the 2016 Dong Feng Citroen Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan, China on Thursday.

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Ratchanok, 21, made much of an impact early this month when she came up with brilliant performances to capture three World Superseries tournaments in succession including the Malaysia Open and the Singapore Open in three weeks. This superb form moved the three-time World Junior Championships ruler to the top the BWF world rankings on April 21 surpassing Carolina Marin of Spain.

However, Ratchanok's spectacular winning-run was stopped by the incumbent world No.14 Sato, who came up as a runner-up in this year's Syed Modi International Championships in India.  The 25-year-old Japanese has a record of 175 wins and 109 losses with 50,083 garnered points in 21 tournaments that she has participated in.

"I didn't want to stress over my performance here," said Ratchanok. "I've won three Superseries in a row; my main aim while coming here was to try and maintain my form and to learn as much as possible. I need more time to improve myself."

The early exit from the competition is likely to see Ratchanok moved down to No.2 in the world rankings of the BWF when the world's governing body for the sport of badminton announces its weekly world rankings updates of global badminton players on May 5.

TagsRatchanok Intanon, Carolina Marin, bwf 2016, bwf rankings, dong feng citroen badminton asia championships