Saina Nehwal is confident of improving her head-to-head record against Carolina Marin

Saina Nehwal in action at the Japan Open Superseries

World No.1 Saina Nehwal has had a wonderful time so far in 2015. The 25-year-old became the first Indian women’s shuttler to be crowned World No.1 in March, during the India Open Superseries, prior to which she finished as the runners-up to Carolina Marin at the All England Championships.

After a few disappointing outings at the Australian and Indonesia Open, she bounced back splendidly at the World Championships in Jakarta to become the maiden shuttler from the country to win a silver medal in the competition.

But her journey to the top hasn’t been an easy one by any stretch of the imagination. Apart from making changes to her style of play, Saina has also had to make alterations away from the badminton court, like shifting base from Hyderabad to Bengaluru, which has proven to be very fruitful for her.

Speaking about the rapid change in her performances, Saina credited Vimal Kumar for helping her not brood too much over her defeats and added that she is now in a much happier space now.

“Over a period of two months, I began forgetting the losses to all these players and started beating them again to reclaim my confidence. And nothing gives me more happiness than winning,” the shuttler said in an interview to the Hindustan Times.

“I am at a happier place in my life. When I was in Hyderabad, there wasn’t much improvement after a point. I was a little upset with the way I was playing. I was losing to Chinese players Li Xuerui, Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian quite regularly. I could either have sat there waiting for my time to come or done something to improve my game. Being a player, you need to be selfish at times. I want to win for my country. Luckily for me, Vimal sir was there at the World Championships in Copenhagen. He told me I was good but I would have to play much better in order to beat the top players consistently,” she added.

Saina is extremely generous in praise of her coach Vimal Kumar

Stressing further on the physical demands of a sport like badminton, Saina said that it was extremely hard for her to gulp the losses which she suffered in marquee tournaments and reiterated that she wasn’t the most naturally gifted shuttler and Kumar played a key role in structuring her daily routine.

“Any player will feel bad if they lose continuously. In particular, the world championship losses were hurting me [she lost five times in the quarter-final stage before making it to the final in 2015]. Excelling in singles is very difficult to achieve. You need lots of physical strength and quick reflexes.

“I am not a naturally gifted player. I have to work harder on my shots and developing new strokes and using them in matches. But it is easier with someone like Vimal sir in my corner. He comes prepared with a personalised plan for my training every day,” she said.

Will do something to improve my record against Marin: Saina

Her defeat to Carolina Marin at the World Championships was her second in 5 meetings between the two and added that she would look to get the better of her in the future.

“It is part of a sportsperson’s life. I can’t say when I will play Carolina next. But I’ll definitely do something to improve my record when I meet her. It is a good rivalry and she is doing extremely well. I hope I improve even more and beat her.”

On a lighter note, Saina got the chance to meet Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan when he was in Hyderabad last month, during a film shoot. Speaking about the experience, she said she identifies with him and hoped to become like him.

“I identify with him. I want to be the Shah Rukh Khan of badminton!” Like Shah Rukh sir, who conquered the world of movies coming from an ordinary, non-film family, I too want to excel in my chosen field. My family too didn’t have any big connection with badminton. But today, like him, I can say, I am the best,” she concluded.

Replying to that comment, Mr Khan tweeted this earlier today

I want to be the @NSaina of films!!

— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) October 4, 2015