Saina Nehwal

She may have lost in the World Badminton Championships quarter finals to a Chinese player, but it has not in any way eroded Saina Nehwal’s new found fan following among the Indian fans. After a long-long time indeed has emerged a woman player who has the potential to become poster girl of Indian sports. It is a sheer coincidence that she is from Hyderabad, a city, which gave to India Sania Mirza, but Saina seems to be a story that is an example of grit, determination and perseverance. No wonder, even Aamir Khan has become a fan of Saina Nehwal. Saina’s USP is her level headedness. She has her feet planted firmly in the ground, and with Pullela Gopichand as her coach, Saina indeed is destined to go places.

It was her magic performance at the courts that paved the way for her to do a catwalk in a fashion show in Hyderabad. Saina is fearlessness personified, and it is precisely owing to this trait, that she is among the top five badminton players in the world, rest four being Chinese. It is strong will power not to give in that has been her fame to glory.

It is more than two decades that women badminton in India seems to be going places. Indeed after Amita Modi hung her racket, there never was a player who could reach anyway near her, though there were promises galore, but now Saina seems to be taking over the mantle of Indian badminton and her immediate goal is to earn first medal for the country at Olympics, London Olympics to be precise. Her path to London Olympics however would begin with the Common Wealth Games, followed by the Asian Games where Chinese players would indeed test her and for Saina it would be a real test to live up to her potential.

Though at times, she may appear dazed with the score of interviews that she has to attend to, now she would be slightly relieved. Her defeat at the World Championship would remove the spotlight from her and give her time to focus on her game. One often wonders whether the scores of interviews that she had to give, that did not allow her to have proper rest also affected her performance at the World Championship. May be, media houses need to introspect as well and not bamboozle her with request for interviews but only be content with covering her games. Her job is to play and let her play.

By: Suman Rai

Tags: Indian Sports, Pullela Gopichand, Saina Nehwal, Sports India, World Badminton Championships