What is the road ahead for World No.1 Saina Nehwal?

Saina Nehwal

2015 has been a milestone in Saina Nehwal’s career. This year she reached the finals of prestigious All England and BWF World Championship. Both tournaments full of world’s most competitive shutters. Even though Saina marginally lost on both occasions to Carolina Marin, she left a huge impression. And most importantly she broke the jinx of faltering at decisive moments in major tournaments. In the process, she also earned the World no 1 ranking more than once. So, what’s next for Saina? How should Saina plan for the coming months that will see some power packed badminton?

There is a lot left in the season right now. Japan Open Superseries to be played from 8th Sep in Tokyo, Korea Open Superseries from 15th Sep in Seoul, Denmark Open Superseries Premier from 13th Oct, Thaihot China Open Superseries Premier from 10th Nov, Hong Kong Open Superseries from 17th Nov and of course mother of all tournaments to end the year, World Superseries Finals to be played at Dubai from 9th December. With so many prestigious tournaments still lined up ahead, there is a lot Saina can do to cement her position, especially with respect to how she has played Carolina Marin this year.

Let’s simplify this; Carolina Marin has been Saina’s biggest nemesis this year. Saina and Carolina have played each other five times. Till the beginning of this year, Saina won all her matches against Carolina taking a 3-0 career lead over her opponent. Out of the three victories, two were in final matches, making Saina a champ and leaving Carolina disappointed. However, the story changed from the All England final where Carolina trumped Saina rather easily.

Crowd support has favoured Carolina in both her wins over Saina

The script was repeated at the recently concluded World Championship in Indonesia. With these two wins that too in the final of all important tournaments Carolina very aggressively avenged her past losses to Saina. When Carolina gets going on the court, it reflects in her on-court behavior where her shouts become fiery and aggressive with each success.

In both these finals, there was one common factor. On both those occasions, the crowds were vociferously supporting Carolina. In Indonesia, it was a surprise final for Saina. Crowds in Indonesia have often supported Saina and she has acknowledged her openly post winning Djarum Indonesia Open on a few occasions. But this time Saina had reached final at the expense of Indonesia, by defeating the local star Lindaweni Fanetri. And crowds were almost avenging Fanetri’s loss by chanting for Carolina Marin.

The final also saw some time-wasting tricks being played by Carolina Marin. At the beginning of almost each serve chair umpire was forced to call Carolina’s name a number of times asking her to get ready to play. That was when Saina had a nose ahead and it seemed she is going to win the final. Ultimately Carolina succeeded in breaking Saina’s momentum and took the game away from her.

What will bother Saina if she ever goes back to look at the replay of the match is how her indecisiveness on the court cost her the gold . At one stage, she looked pretty close to nailing it. And then she all at a sudden went 100% defensive. Yes, it is true that Saina is better at defense than attack. But 100% attack or 100% can’t win you a match. It has to be the right mix of caution and aggression. In the 3rd game in the final Saina didn’t attack Carolina even when there was an opportunity. Many loose returns from Carolina that could be attacked, Saina returned normally generously allowing Carolina back in the point. Gradually, Carolina got her acts together and crawled back to the match.

At the top, players need not only be talented. Apart from skill they also need temperament, stamina, the ability to read the opponent, the ability to sense an opportunity etc. Saina is a fighter. She has proved it time and again. But if Saina wants to go the distance she has to close the loopholes in her on court personality. Top Chinese players are injured and are not playing their best.

Reserve strength of China and players from other mainstream badminton nations Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Thailand etc are not strong enough or consistent enough to cause her a major worry. Overall, this is the best time for Saina to iron out the creases from her game and on court personality and she could very well be on her road to success previously unimagined.