Saina Nehwal came into the badminton world championships with very little expectations, having struggled to string any meaningful performances in the last few months. She wasn’t really confident about her fitness levels after the knee injury she suffered a year ago.
But on Thursday, the last edition’s silver medallist made a statement of sort when she dumped second seed Sung Ji Hyun 21-19, 21-15 in just 47 minutes to reach the quarter-finals.
More than the win, it was the way Nehwal fought back when her back was to the wall in the opening game and the variety of strokes she managed to execute that would have given her the confidence to try and go all the way in the competition.
The 27-year-old, however, was just happy to pull out a good win after a long time, saying the injury and surgery which followed did take a toll on her.
“Injuries can still easy come back but surgery was a new experience,” she said. “I never thought that it would take so much time to come back and win tough matches, win good matches. It was very painful to come out of the knee surgery. Whenever I do my sessions, it hurts a lot. Nobody knows, only I know how much it hurts. But you have to deal with it.
She added, “It’s a sport and every player has gone through it. I don’t mind having these painful days but I want to come back stronger, I want to win matches. That’s what gives me satisfaction. That’s what I want to do.”
Staying under the radar
Nehwal will now face local hope Kristy Gilmour in the quarter-finals. The London Olympics bronze medallist also insisted that there was no conscious effort on her part to stay under the radar coming to the championships.
“I will always like to be talked about but I can understand that I wasn’t playing well and hence no one is talking about me,” she said. “But people know who I am. It’s not like they have forgotten me or something like that. They know that I can pull through tough matches on my day. Every match is a tough match but I have to believe in myself that I can come back stronger. When Tine Baun, Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan and Roger Federer can do it, why not me? You just have to take inspiration from these top players.
She added, “Whether the results come after one year or two years, you have to keep on doing the hard work. It’s not like I can’t beat [top players]. I have defeated them before and you need to be patient once you have such difficult injury.”
Asked about Friday’s quarter-final against Gilmour, Nehwal said any last-eight match at the world championships is going to be tough but she wasn’t thinking too much about it and was only concentrating on taking good rest before the match.
On whether she thinks that she is a medal contender now and feeling the pressure, Nehwal said she never thinks so much about titles when she is playing. “I am not thinking of a medal. I just wanted to get out of the match with a win, play my natural game. I have a medal already at the Worlds (silver in 2015), so I have nothing to prove. I don’t need to worry. I just need to play well.”
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