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A spate of injuries and lack of form in recent times have seen Saina Nehwal struggle to achieve the kind of success she seemed destined for.
It was Saina who almost single-handedly broke through the Chinese Wall, so to say. There was a time a few years back when it was termed as China Vs. Saina. And rightly so, because at a time when almost all the top players in women’s badminton were from China, it was Saina who was consistently challenging their supremacy in big tournaments.
Saina achieving the world number 1 ranking was certainly an epoch-making moment for Indian sports in general, and Indian badminton in particular. She has gone on to achieve many laurels for India, including winning an Olympic medal.
The emergence of PV Sindhu, in some way, could be seen as a result of the inspiring story of Saina Nehwal, apart from the efforts of the incomparable Pullela Gopichand. But thanks to injury and lack of fitness, Saina’s performance has seen a nose-dive in the last few years. Sindhu has overtaken her as India’s number 1 shuttler.
It’s to her credit that despite her inconsistency and poor form, she has still managed some big wins this year in Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships.
Saina has been losing to not just top Chinese players, but also the Japanese and the Taiwanese players regularly for quite some time. But her performance in the recently-concluded Denmark Open is certainly a cause for optimism.
Even though she again lost to the world number 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the final, she gave her a tough fight and it was a close affair in the first two games.
More importantly, Saina broke the jinx against her nemesis, the world number 2 Akane Yamaguchi, by defeating her for the first time in 4 years. She also defeated another Japanese, the former world champion Nozomi Okuhara, in a thrilling come-from-behind victory.
Though she could not lift the trophy in the end, there are some very encouraging signs for her from this tournament. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic dreams are still alive.
