New Delhi:
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will skip the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award ceremony to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here on Sunday.
World number two Saina crashed out of the World Championship after losing her quarterfinal match to Chinese Shixian Wang on Friday in Paris.
"No I will not be available. I have written a letter to the sports ministry for that," she said through an email, when asked if she would be here to receive the award.
"I am proud to be named the most promising sportsperson of 2010. It will be a source of inspiration to me forever," she added.
Saina won a hat-trick of titles -- the Indian Open Grand Prix Open, Singapore Super Series and Indonesia Super Series -- to reach the world number two ranking and was one of the contenders for the World title.
"I'm sad. I wanted to do better but failed as the Chinese was much better than me. I knew where she was playing, still I was not reaching the target. At few occasions I was good. Yes I lost the bus," said the 20-year-old Hyderabadi.
Saina has been very consistent for the last two years and even in 2010, the Indian reached the semifinals of the All England Super Series and also performed well in the Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup.
The Hyderabadi was named the Khel Ratna awardee for her consistent performance, before being roped in as one of the brand ambassadors of the Commonwealth Games to be held here from October 3-14.