Saina Nehwal among top five in the world

Saina Nehwal allowed herself a few liberties on her 20th birthday that was on Wednesday. She gobbled down a few goodies. By Nehwal’s own admission she tends to put on weight, so she stays clear of all fatty foods, including fried delicacies. It is a small sacrifice she makes, one that goes a long way in helping Saina stay at the top of her game.

Recently she has been able to do what the Camilla Martins and Tine Rasmussens of this world have managed — stay in touch with the Chinese and also beat them at times. On Thursday, she became the first Indian woman to break into the top-5. Last week, she went where no Indian woman had gone when she entered the semifinals of the All England.

By the end of this month she would have received the Padma Shri. “March is proving to be a very productive month,” the Indian ace would admit.

“It’s nice to be ranked No.5 in the world. What makes it more special is that it came about following my semifinal showing in the All-England. My next step will be to be ranked among the top-three in the world,” Saina told DNA after a training session on Thursday evening.

A glance at the world rankings reveals six Chinese in the top-10. Of more significance is the fact that the top-4 are all Chinese. Yihan Wang, Wang Lin, Xin Wang and Jiang Yanjiao are above Saina in the rankings.

However, Saina isn’t perturbed about the Chinese. “I don’t really look at who are the players above me and whether they are Chinese. They are tough opponents but it’s not like I haven’t beaten the Chinese players before,” Saina added.

Saina and her coach Pullela Gopi Chand have made a conscious
decision — one that could see her miss a few points but will allow her to train harder and in-turn hopefully win the bigger tournaments.

“I have given the Korean Open and Swiss Open a miss. We are planning to focus a lot more on training. It may mean that I could slip a couple of places in the rankings but in the long run it will do me good. Doing well in the World Badminton Championship  (August) and Commonwealth Games (October) are a priority. If I can remain injury-free and perform at my best things can only get better from here on,” Saina added.

Gopi Chand believes that Saina has improved by leaps and bounds. “I am really pleased with her performance at the All-England,” he told this paper. As for the Chinese, the coach added: “The Chinese remain tough opponents for Saina. It gets challenging for her when she has to play back-to-back matches against Chinese players in the latter stages of a big tournament. But nothing is beyond Saina now.”