Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has never unveiled as to why she has enjoyed a higher success rate against PV Sindhu, sitting comfortably at a lead of 3-1 against compatriot shuttler. Saina recently expanded the head to head deficit by thrashing Sindhu in the Commonwealth Games gold medal match in women’s singles category.
Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of the feliciation ceremony of CWG medal winning shuttlers by BAI, Saina said “It’s not about me playing against Sindhu or any other opponent. I just take her (Sindhu) as any other opponent. I have issues with some of the players but I am comfortable playing against some of them. May be my game is more suited while playing against them. But I don’t know how it happened but it is happening on the court,”.
“I keep working on my areas of weakness. I want to think that I am better than my opponent but actually that is not. May be Sindhu or any other player in the world, all are very dangerous at the moment. I have to be always careful and be alert about the mistakes I had done in matches against them,” she added.
Saina won a mixed team event gold and women’s singles gold at CWG 2018, she followed it up with a bronze at Asian Badminton Championships, loosing to Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the semi-final.
I am playing very well, don’t know of old (or not). But this is winning me medals,” Saina said.
Saina believes that India should do better in the upcoming Asian Games because the top shuttlers are in great form currently.
“Asian Games is going to be tougher than the CWG, it is almost the same level as Olympics. It is going to be difficult but all of us are playing very well at the moment and our confidence is really high. It depends on the draw also. But I think the performance should be better this time,” she said.
The poster girl of Indian badminton also credited her physio Christopher Pedra, who was roped in after the Indonesia Open in January.
“I am feeling the difference happening in my strength and I can move much freely on the court now. The niggles are less now than the one and half months to two months back. He (Christopher) has played a great part off the court as regards to strength and conditioning.
“The amount of strength I am having now, I never thought I would be able to move on the court like what I am doing now. It was very challenging for me to come out of that hip and knee issues that I had and there were a lot of areas of weakness on my legs. The moment he came in there was a lot of improvement in my strength. I can now play much easier.”
Saina described world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei to whom she lost in the Asian Badminton Championships last month as a tricky and deceptive player.
Saina also talked about the upcoming biopic in which Shraddha Kapoor will play the role of “Saina”
“It is good to see a movie coming out based on a sportsperson and it is going to make badminton more popular and inspire more people. When an actor plays a role of a sportsperson, it is going to be very challenging. With the kind of hardwork, she is putting in, I think she will be able to pull it off,”.
