World Badminton Championships 2017: Top 5 female contenders

Saina Nehwal

BCA Indonesia Open 2017 : News Photo — Saina Nehwal

In the build-up to the 2017 World Championships, while all eyes have been firmly fixed on the Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu, the 2015 World Championships runner-up Saina Nehwal has mostly been in the shadows.

It hasn’t been the best of years for Saina. Since her knee surgery last September, the former World No. 1 has triumphed only at the Malaysia Masters in January. Inconsistency and a lack of fitness have seen her spiralling into quite a few shocking early exits from the elite tournaments. She has not progressed past the quarter-finals in any Superseries event this year and is currently tottering at the World No. 16 ranking.

But being away from the spotlight sometimes does wonders. With the low ranking, she has found herself a 12th seeding which has very much made her a dark horse for this tournament.

There has never been any doubt about her passion or hunger for the sport. She has been one of the most mentally strong shuttlers on the Tour.

If she can get the better of the second seed Sung Ji Hyun in the third round, whom she did beat at the Australian Open in June, she can boost her confidence level.

About the author

Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.

Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.

Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.

When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.

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Edited by Amit Mishra