As Saina marches on at the World Badminton Championships, she is the talk of the world
As Saina marches on at the World Badminton Championships, she is the talk of the worldu00a0
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Confidence is like a second skin for Saina Nehwal. She nurtures it, keeps it glowing. "It's her biggest asset," says Denmark's star player Tine Baum who is in the other half of the draw. "She may be sluggish in a match but her confidence pulls her back in. Mentally, she's right there with the best in the world."
England's No 1 men's player Rajiv Ouseph says, "When she plays, you will never know when she has reeled off 10 points in a row. It's unhurried and sometimes I wonder if she played the match at all."
When asked about her quarter-final opponent (Shixian Wang of China), Nehwal is casual to the point of indifference. "I have played so many quarter-finals," she says. "It really doesn't matter. What matters is what I do in the match."
The match...
Now, here's what happened at Saina's match: The drop shot was as beautiful as watching a feather in a free fall. At 6-6 in the second game of Saina Nehwal's World Badminton Championships campaign, things were tense.
A few line calls had gone against the Russian Ella Diehl. She threw her racquet on court glared at the linesman, back to her coach pleading that the call was wrong.
But then composed her self and served a high toss to the baseline. A six-shot rally later, Diehl tossed the shuttle to the back court, hoping to pin Nehwal and come in for the kill. Nehwal arched her back as if readying for a smash then a split second later, sliced the shuttle as it arched across the stuffy Stade Coubertin air, cut over the net and dropped millimeters across the net. Diehl expecting a smash was caught in mid-court, rushed but the shuttle had touched the plexi court. Nehwal clenched her fist knowing fully well that the game had turned and unless she committed major blunders, the match was hers.
At 15-10, the match was in the bag. But Diehl had other ideas. She pinned Nehwal with some lovely net play to the left corner. Nehwal instead of coming out and flicking a high toss, played the net game too. But more often than not, sent the shuttle spinning across the sideline. At 17-17, it could have been anybody's game.
Nehwal muttered through clenched teeth and reeled off four points to take the match 21-14, 21-18 and a place in the quarter-finals. "Even though it wasn't a tough match, there were errors," Nehwal admitted. "At times in the match, I wasn't closing out the openings knowing she liked long rallies."
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