It’s an ability that few Indian sports people, over the decades, were reckoned to have. Call it what you will - ‘killer instinct’, ‘self-belief’, ‘never-say-die attitude’ - it all comes down to this: the ability to return from a match as victor.
Saina Nehwal has that ability, although even she struggles to define it. She has always been known to have that steely resolve even as a junior, but surely cultivating it has not been easy?
“Of course it (mental ability) changes,” she said, on phone from Jakarta. “You get the idea over time, and with experience. I’ve always been tough mentally, but it changes, you know. You just keep fighting. At the Singapore Open I was 4-16 down, but you should never give up.
Even if you can’t win the game, you have to fight, so that you make it 12 or 16, and you try to get eight or ten points more. And that’s important. This time I was physically very tired, I was quite slow in the first game itself. But mentally I just stayed on in the game.”
Where does this desire to win come from? “It’s natural,” she replied. “Especially when you’ve won two straight tournaments, you’re very confident. I know that I will have a lot of wins and losses coming up, and I’m prepared for that.
The Singapore Open was very tough. I never wanted to give up. Of course after every match we did the right things - I relaxed well, had a good massage - and that helped too. I’m really happy I could give 100 per cent in every match.”
These are qualities that the badminton-loving public of Indonesia has come to adore. They recognise a champion when they see one, and just as they were besotted by Padukone in his prime, they are enamoured of her.
“They’ve adopted me,” she said with a laugh. “When I went to the tournament, the public kept saying they wanted me to win. They like me a lot. It feels like I’m playing at home. It’s like being in a cricket match in India. In India the crowd can get crazy, but in Indonesia it’s even crazier.”
