Indian female sportspersons who have been ranked World No. 1

Badminton

Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal, born on (March 17 1990) is a professional badminton player who started representing India at the age of 16. She started her career in 2006 by playing at the junior tournaments, and six years later, she ended up winning a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics, making her the first Indian badminton player to win an Olympic medal. On the back of her impressive performances, such as winning Syed Modi International, runner-up in the All England tournament and winning India Open in 2015, she made her the World Number one when BWF ranking was released on April 2, 2015. She is the only Indian female player ever to be ranked World Number 1 in Badminton.

Tennis

Sania Mirza

Sania Mirza, born on (March 15 1986) is a professional tennis player who started representing India at the age of 15. She made her debut in the ITF circuit in the year 2001 and has had a lot of success as a doubles player. In 2015, she decided to pair up with Martina Hingis, and they both went on to win three successive titles, which made Sania Mirza to be World Number 1 in WTA's doubles ranking. With achieving this feat, she became the first Indian woman tennis player to be ranked World Number 1, and she was in that top spot for 91 consecutive weeks.

Boxing

Mary Kom

Mary Kom, born on (November 24 1982) is an amateur boxer who started representing India at the age of 19. She has eight World championship medals, out of which six are gold, and also, she became the first Indian woman boxer to win a medal in the Olympics when she won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. On the back of her sixth world title in the 48 kg category, she became the first Indian woman boxer to be ranked number one by AIBA in 2019.

Archery

Deepika Kumari

Deepika Kumari, born on (June 13 1994) is an athlete who competes in the event of archery. She started her career in 2008 and has several world cup medals to her name. On the back of winning her first-ever World cup individual recurve event in Antalya, she became the World number one in 2012. There have been ups and downs in her career, but currently, she's the World number one in women's archery.

Wrestling

Vinesh Phogat

Vinesh Phogat, born on (August 25 1994) is a wrestler who started representing India at the age of 19. Representing India on the global stage, she has already won medals at Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World championship. On the back of her impressive performances this year, the wrestler became the World number one in March.

Shooting

Heena Sidhu

Heena Sidhu, born on (August 29 1989) is a professional sport shooter who started representing India at the age of 18. Her first significant achievement was in 2009 when she won a silver medal in a 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World cup in Beijing. On the back of her impressive performances starting from 2013, she rose to the top of the ranking, making her the first Indian woman shooter to be ranked World number one in the 10m air pistol category.

Anjali Bhagawat

Anjali Bhagawat, born on (December 5 1969) is a professional sport shooter who started representing India at the age of 26. Representing India at various international events, she has won 31 gold, 23 silver and 7 bronze medals. On the back of her impressive performances starting from 2000, she became World number one in 2002, making her the Indian shooter to achieve World number one ranking in any category.

Elavenil Valarivan

Elavenil Valarivan, born on (August 2 1999) is a professional sports shooter who started representing India at the age of 19. On the back of her impressive gold medal performance in the world cup in the year 2019, she became the world number one in the 10m Air rifle category in December 2019.

Apurvi Chandela

Apurvi Chandela, born on (January 4 1993) is a professional sports shooter who started representing India at the age of 21. She is regarded as one of the best 10m air rifle shooter, and she has won two gold medals in the 2019 ISSF world cup. On the back of her consistent performances and world record score of 252.9 at the world cup, she became the World number one in the 10m air rifle category in 2019.

Yashaswini Singh Deswal

Yashaswini Singh Deswal, born on (March 30 1997) is a professional sports shooter who started representing India at the age of 17. It all began when she first qualified for the 2014 youth Olympics where she finished sixth in the final of the 10m air pistol event. On the back of her impressive gold medal performance in the ISSF World cup at Rio de Janeiro in 2019, she became the world number one in this category.

Cricket

Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Mandhana, born on (July 18 1996) is a cricketer who plays for the Indian women's national team. She made her Test debut in 2014 against England, ODI debut in 2013 against Bangladesh and T20I debut against Bangladesh. On the back of her impressive performances starting from 2018, which includes 2 centuries and 8 half-centuries, she became the number one ranked batter in ODI's in 2019.

Jhulan Goswami

Jhulan Goswami, born on (November 25 1982) is a cricketer who plays for the Indian women's national team and has been the captain of the side in the past. She made her ODI and Test debut way back in 2002, and still, she's playing at the highest level in these two formats. She first became world number one in 2007, and again she regained world number one status in 2019 when ICC announced the ODI's bowler rankings.

Shafali Verma

Shafali Verma, born on (January 28 2004) is a cricketer who plays for the Indian women's national team. She is the youngest player to represent India in all three forms of international cricket. Shafali made her T20I debut in 2019 and both Test and ODI debut in 2021. On the back of her impressive performance in the T20 series against South Africa this year, She became the World number one ranked T20 batter in Women's cricket.