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2012 London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal believes 2015 has been one of the best years of her career. However the Indian shuttler also feels, she could have performed better if injuries weren’t there.
The 25-year-old said, “I was well set to win more tournaments but injuries didn't leave me the whole year. When you are fit and fine then progress comes automatically. Out of three important finals (All England, World Championship and China Open), I was the only runners up in three tournaments where as the winner in two (All England and World Championship) was Carolina and in third (China Open) the winner was Li Xuerui."
This year, apart from winning at Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and India Open Super Series, she was also ranked number one in the world.
Currently world number two, Saina had also reached the finals of World Championships, All England Championships and China Open Super Series Premier. "Being world number one is the most satisfying while being runners up in three events in a year is not very encouraging to my personal career. This year is also one of the best but more was to be done by me. I wish I would have been free of injuries. It is an important component of badminton. Almost all the girls in international badminton were doing well in the tournaments," she said.
Earlier in this year, the ace shuttler had shifted from Hyderabad to Bangalore to receive training from new Coach Vimal Kumar. Talking about Kumar, Saina said, “I had excellent training sessions at PPBA at Bangalore during 2015 under Vimal Sir. Physical fitness, personal skill and the best training contributes a lot to the outcome of a player. I enjoyed the training at Bangalore and achieved the best in my pursuit. Coach Vimal Kumar played a pivotal role in scaling the performance of my game.”
In 2011, the 25-year-old shuttler had played the finals of BWF Super Series Final. She will face the world’s top 8 shuttlers including China's Li Xuerui and Spaniard Caroline Marin at Dubai Super Series Masters Finals that starts from December 9.
Talking about constant competiton the star shuttler said, “It is the nature of sports that every time some new faces are striving hard to gain momentum in the game, it shows badminton progress is on high speed. It is always difficult to fight with the top players in badminton. I will give my best to show my performance.”
Though she had been suffering from an Achilles tendon injury, Saina believes she is fit to play. “It will be very interesting to see the outcome. I am recovering well from injuries,” she said. India will be looking forward to the world number two’s performance at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next year. Saina agreed that such prestigious events do create a stress on players. “It is true that every important event has a stress feeling on a player, but I will do my best to achieve the best in Rio Olympics,” she added.
