Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal after a going through a lean patch throughout the last year seems to have pressed the button which has put her on damage control mode. And evidence to this is her title defence at the Swiss Open recently.
The win saw brought an end to her one year title drought and that to against a player from China, the powerhouse of world badminton. But then she defied the odds and after losing continuously for a year against Chinese players for a year now defeated two of them in order to win in Basel last week.
First she defeated Xin Liu and then in the final thrashed world number three Shixian Wang in straight games. The win has come at the right time for her and she did admit it for herself. India is a country where Olympics medals are hard to come by but Saina has always been a potential prospect. But World number five’s performance last year made a lot of people to contemplate that her days were over and she was one more over hyped athlete and would flatter only to deceive by the end of it all.
She feels that she peaked at the right time ahead of the London Olympics and let us take you through few points to establish as to why the statement made by her behold truth.
Delivering at big events:
Saina announced her arrival at the international badminton arena back in 2006 Commonwealth Games, Melbourne where she won the bronze medal. But World actually knew what Saina is made of when she made it to the fourth round of her first Olympics held in Beijing. And after that there was nothing that could stop her and she went on win many international tournament, including 2008 Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold, 2008 BWF World Junior Championships 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2011 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold amongst others. And if records are to be believed, then it seriously does make her a serious prospect for India in upcoming 2012 London Olympics.
Breaking the jinx:
If the World number five Saina’s record is taken in to account, then one can see that major reason for her slump last year was because she was not able to breach any of the Chinese players. But in Basel she finally deciphered the Chinese code and defeated two of them in order to successfully retain her title. And now win against Chinese opponents definitely would do her confidence a world of good in the Olympics.
Consistency:
She has one been one athlete who has been consistent throughout her career. She went little off her shine last year but her Swiss Open win is definitely helped her bury her past agonies and does mark the arrival of her purple patch.
Dedication:
Her dedication is awe inspiring. Even when she is not playing the game or relaxing, Olympics is still at the back of her mind. Saina has achieved a lot and a player of her nature has a kind of robust and arrogant nature. But she is completely a different entity all together and is open to take cues from others and accept her mistakes. This virtue has been one of the major reasons for her success and remains the same would continue to help during the Olympics as well.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
