Saina Nehwal
World No. 5 Saina Nehwal is looking forward to kick start her season with the Yonex All England Badminton Championships which begins next month. She will hope to regain full fitness by then and is working hard to get back to her prime form.
The ace shuttler has not had the best start to the year. The Hyderabad based Saina, who has slid down from No. 2 in December to her current ranking, lost to Japan’s Sayaka Sato in three games in the Korean Open in the last week of January, owing to her ankle injury. “That is why my fitness is important to me. I really played in Korea to keep my ranking points in place and now for the next two weeks I’ll be training with a strapped ankle and hopefully will recuperate before the All England,” she says.
In the All England Championships that will be held from March 8-13, she will be pitted against the best in the world including top Chinese rivals. The 21-year-old said this year, because of the change in the rules by the world body BWF, the top Chinese players would have to play a number of tournaments. “I would like to play them as much as possible and the change in rules would see them play in a lot of tournaments.”
Though Saina’s ranking dipped from two to five, she still had a great 2010 — winning three consecutive super series and Commonwealth Games gold last year. She is raring to go, after her dream run was interrupted by an an ankle injury which she suffered after the Guangzhou Asian Games.
On her future goals Saina is targeting the World Championships in August and the London Olympics next year. Though, currently her only target is to play to her full potential in the upcoming Championships.
Tags: Badminton, India, Korean Open, Saina Nehwal, Shuttler, Sports, Super Series, World Championships, Yonex All England Open 2011
