Marin, Rio gold high on Saina’s hit list

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 2

Saina Nehwal has been living a “dream” since moving to Bengaluru to train under former India coach Vimal Kumar. After parting ways with her mentor Pullela Gopichand on a rather acrimonious note, Saina’s decision to shift base to the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy has turned out to be a masterstroke in terms of results. She has not only won the China and Indian Open, besides reaching the pinnacle of the world rankings, but also finished as the runner-up at the All England and World Championships.

From dropping down six places to world No. 9 in an almost inexplicable fashion, the Hyderabadi shuttler rose like a phoenix to pose a serious challenge to the dominance of the Chinese in major international events by consistently defeating them in the quarters and semifinals.

But as India’s No.1 singles player has started scaling the Chinese wall, she has hit a new stumbling block — Carolina Marin of Spain.

Saina has been able to break the stranglehold of Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian and Wang Yihan, but she has been pinned down by Spanish wonder girl Marin on more than one occasion in the last couple of months. Saina lost to Marin in the summit clash of the All England and recently in the World Championships in Jakarta.

Saina has already started her preparations for the Rio Games and is desperately looking to find ways to demolish Marin’s defence. She would be playing in Japan Open this month and beating Marin, apart from winning the Open, is the target she has set for herself.

“I would definitely be looking to beat her. That is one aim at Japan Open. She has defeated me twice in two major finals, and it’s time to find a way to get past her. I have beaten almost all the top-ranked Chinese players in the last few months and this time the effort would be to beat Marin,” Saina said here on Wednesday.

Saina is aware of the fact that consistently beating the top-ranked players holds the key to her success at the Rio Olympics as the psychological advantage, both in terms of game and rankings, would boost her confidence.

“Everything is going on fine at this stage. I am training well under Vimal sir and the results are also good. But the important part is to maintain the consistency and beat top players on regular basis. That way, you would get better at your game which is very important,” she said.

The reigning world No. 1 shuttler said that she wanted to justify the government spending lakhs on her through TOP scheme by winning the gold at the Rio Games. “It’s going to get a lot more difficult because everyone will be preparing hard for Rio. I will look to win gold because that is my dream. I would definitely like to improve on my bronze finish.”

Saina thanked Vimal for coming as a saviour in her life and instilling confidence in her. “It’s been like a dream for me under his tutelage. I still can’t believe that I have achieved such great results in just one year. The training which I was getting in Hyderabad was not sufficient. That’s the reason why I moved to Bengaluru for personal training as I desperately needed to get back to my original self. I am at a perfect place now.”