Mentally tough Saina should do well at Worlds: Vimal

Bengaluru, August 2

Saina Nehwal might be recovering from a shoulder pain but coach Vimal Kumar is confident of a good performance at the World Championships as he feels the Indian is “mentally tougher” than the other girls who are “unpredictable”.

“Her (Saina) rivals are good players and very unpredictable, but Saina is mentally tougher than them. Physically also, she is better. These factors should help her do well in the World Championships,” Kumar said.

“This World Championships will be an open and interesting battle because the Chinese girls have not been successful for the last ten months,” the former chief national coach said.

“In the last one year — after the Asian Games — majority of the international games were won by four girls: Saina, Carolina Marin (Spain), Tai Tzu-ying (Chinese Taipei) and Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand),” he added.

Talking about the draw, Kumar said: “Saina has worked hard but it is a tough draw for her, because she is likely to face Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi in the pre-quarters and China’s Wang Yihan in the next stage.

“All the top players are expected to give a tough fight as they had five to six weeks for preparing for the big event. She has to take one match at a time. She is experienced and knows how to deal with it,” Kumar said. “Earlier, there were only the Chinese who ruled the roost, but now it is between Carolina and Saina. For me whoever wins the World Championships will become world No. 1.”

Saina has never progressed beyond the quarterfinals at the World Championships. “It has been a successful story getting trained under Vimal sir. The results have been sweet. I am training hard for this event; there is some shoulder pain but I hope to recover soon,” she said after a practice session. — PTI