IMO its not about the money but its about her game. Even though she won the China open I still don't think she has come back to her old self yet. She is still having some issues, mentally. She needs to reinvent herself add new strokes, think on the fly, re-strategize mid-game which the Chinese players do so well. She is not innately talented but its her hard work, focus and determination that has earned her the titles. Top level badminton is gruelling and she is feeling some pressure to keep up as almost everyone has read her game in and out. Mental and physical fatigue is taking over. Unless she re-invents she cannot get past that final barrier of top 2 or in other words the 'Chinese Wall'. She is suffering from the Chinese Syndrome. When she won China open, she said she was happy winning the tittle beating three Chinese on the way. As we know, none of the three are in top 10 and none of the are seeded. And yet she feels happy about beating them. This tells a lot about her current mindset.
http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other...h-was-special-saina-nehwal/article6630750.ece EXCERPTS: "I would rate this as the best compared to the other superseries titles. It is tough because the courts are slow and the crowd cheers the local players. It is a dream for a player to win the china open. I am really delighted at having one . I was surprised that k.srikanth defeated lindan in the men's singles finals of china open. It is a great acievement by any standards. I hope he continues to improve and does well. This augurs well for indian badminton. Frankly it was vimal sir who insisted me that I should play china open. I was not keen initially as there was little time to prepare. Hope she does well in SS FINALS.
http://m.sports.ndtv.com/badminton/...-china-saina-nehwal-aims-to-become-world-no-1 CHINA OPEN TRIUMPH JUSTIFIES , CHANGE OF COACHES, SAYS "SELFISH" SAINA NEHWAL. "Two indians winning in china is special. It was a great achievement for srikanth to beat a player of lindan's class BUT I WOULD NOT SAY HE OVER SHADOWED ME. I always get all the attention I need" , said saina who celebrated her triumph by eating vanilla icecream... What can I say,...?!!!!!!!!
Before this blows out of proportion lets also consider this. No one will talk about being overshadowed out of turn wile talking about their compatriot's success. May be she was asked by reporters if she thinks that her win was overshadowed? and then she answered what is mentioned (which imho is not wrong)....newspapers editors, sadly, do not give any importance to badminton news in India. there had been a lot of factual mistakes and many players and coaches may or may not have been misquoted in past.
Taking it one step at a time :Saina http://www.deccanherald.com/content/445687/taking-one-step-time-saina.html Excerpts : On plans of upcoming season, keeping olympics in mind: I do not have long term plan, I would want to take one tournament at a time. On the pressure of expectations after coming to bengaluru : I believe the pressure has eased off. I feel more relaxed now. In hyderabad, there was a lot of unnecessary pressure, but here I have nothing but my practice to worry about. In hyderabad, there were loads of new players coming up and I was caught in helping them improve their game. I think , in that process my game took a hit. But here, I have no such work and I can have my full concentration on improving my game.
I actually saw the interview on youtube, and it was the lady interviewer who brought up this case of 'overshadowing'. I thought it was quite unfair of the interviewer to bring it up like that. Both Saina and Srikanth won the same title, so in that sense it is not really overshadowing even if KS beat the great Lin Dan. I remember reading an article a few months back mentioning how the author/reporter was awed watching Gopichand and Saina "Doubling up" on Sindhu to help PVS train. Reading her words, perhaps Saina had to help other players as well. One thing is for sure - Saina is getting the attention she wants under Vimal Kumar, and I think that's great for everyone.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...is-year-Saina-Nehwal/articleshow/45511815.cms Excerpts: "For a player, winning is the ultimate aim to show progress. Though I won few tournaments, a grand prix gold, a superseries and a superseries premier tournament besides bronze medal at uber cup and asian games team events. I think I should have won other tournaments as well."
Saw the match Saina vs Shixian today. It was great, really. Saina played really well. I think this is probably one of her best performances this year. She IS improving. But the funny thing is WSX probably wanted to win this even more than Saina. The reason I say this is because I saw Shixian's face during the match when she was behind and it was really pumped up and desperate. It was like this angry face that says " No matter who I lose to, I don't want to lose to Saina". I think I have never seen WSX have facial expressions like that before. And she didn't give up till the end. But in the end Shixian took her defeat sportingly and that congratulated Saina. That was nice. So Saina goes ahead once again in H2H. Congratulations Saina! Srikanth's victory was also nice even though he started poorly. There was a lot of support for Indians. Both Saina and Srikanth got a lot of cheering. I think India got the most support, followed by Indonesia. I saw that INA style : ooh...yeah too.
Feeling kind of sad after watching her lose like that. I feel that Saina wanted the title badly and couldn't absorb the shock of going behind in points. This is why she should believe in the advice in gita - " ma falesu kadachana" . Do your job. Give your best, but don't expect any results. I am not very religious or anything, but that line is something I believe everyone should believe in. Even if she lost, I think she needed to test TTY more. I feel she needs to develop a few more skills to beat TTY. It would be interesting to see what she and her coach has to say after the loss.
exactly, totally agree to whatever you have wrote. .i think it was somewhere in her mind, she wanted to win too badly and when she lost the second game and was down in the third, she totally lost it couldn't come back which she was used to do so often before when she used to come back in matches after huge deficits.
IMO, Saina was outplayed in G2 and G3. There wasn't much Saina could do to prevent her opponent from winning. Saina's movement and footwork is letting her down, and against an extremely deceptive player like Tai, the choppy movement won't work. I somehow feel her movement was much better at the Australian SS. She also needs to broaden her repertoire of shots. There's too many bland and predictable shots.
She was outplayed in G2. G3, I felt she just gave up after watching that TTY was oozing with confidence. Her movement is letting her down. That I agree with. But she has improved. I think she is better than how she was a few months back. But the most improved player of 2014 is TTY. This I agree 100%.
“The idea definitely is to return here next year. The spectators and their support has been overwhelming and it feels so much like a cricket match back home in India. I want to play my best and be back in Dubai next year,” Nehwal told media after Saturday’s semi-final loss. “It has been a hectic season so far. Besides these regular tournaments we had the Asian Games this year and that took away a lot. I am really looking forward to a break for the next two months or so,” the 24-year-old from Hyderabad said. “The ideal plan may be to drop a few tournaments and be a bit more clever while choosing the tournaments for next year. I need to be a bit more careful in the choices I make so that I can come here with the right amount of energy,” she added. The Indian was quite pleased at reaching the last four stage in Dubai. “Overall I think I have done well in this tournament. Maybe I was a little tired from yesterday’s [Friday’s] match [against Bae Yeon Ju] or maybe I need a little more time to get fitter and better for such long tournaments.” Source - http://gulfnews.com/sport/other-sports/nehwal-vows-a-stronger-return-1.1429609
That's good to hear from Saina. She needs to think positive. At the start of the tournament I was thinking that the two real threats to Saina are Yihan and TTY. Yihan turned out unfit and underprepared, so TTY was the biggest threat. In the end she couldn't beat TTY, the eventual champion, but she didn't lose to anyone else. So, I think she played well. I am hoping she will come back fitter, stronger and a better player next time we see her. I think she needs special training to cope with deceptive players like TTY. All these may involve improving her movements, training against deceptive players who play it late and minutely watching video footages of her opponents to both predict her and make strategies against her. She also needs to bring some unpredictability into her game - with some new shots perhaps. I noticed that she was playing the shuttle late in recent tournaments. That's great, but she also needs to add some variety in her game.
Was reading some of the comments by players. Saina seems to think that she ran out of energy. Nehwal said: “I think I was really tired in the second (game). I started well, but again when the long rallies started happening I felt a little tired. Yesterday’s game was also very tough on me. Of course she’s got some difficult strokes, unless you are fresh you can’t pick them up, you have to keep on running.” Overall, she is satisfied with her performance. Would be nice to hear V.Kumar's reactions as well. Sung Ji Hyun seems to think that TTY is on par with LXR right now. "Tai is now as good as the top Chinese players," admitted Sung. TTY is careful that now players will be studying her. "I fell sick twice this year; that's why I could not compete at a high level. Having won the Hong Kong Open and this event, I expect that my opponents will study me closely, but that's something I cannot avoid. I will have to adjust accordingly." http://sport360.com/article/more-sports/30471/world-champion-chen-long-wins-dubai-superseries-title Meanwhile coach Pullela Gopichand thinks that 2014 was the best ever year for Indian badminton, but he feels that future is even better for Indian badminton. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...edented-leap-in-2014/articleshow/45601986.cms
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...an-badminton-says-saina/article1-1299762.aspx Excerpts: MP: FOREIGN COACHES A MUST FOR INDIAN BADMINTON, SAYS SAINA NEHWAL. "In china, there are seperate coaches for each international player. And those coaches give importance to their players. Here we have two top class coaches and they have so many players like me to train. Here if we have foreign coaches, we would learn new tactics and skills and will be able to properly fight the foreign players " the ace shuttler said. ".............. I would like to continue training with vimal sir until Rio 2016"
http://m.sports.ndtv.com/badminton/...iopic-on-her-helps-promote-badminton-in-india Excetpts: SAINA HOPES BIOPIC ON HER TO PROMOTE BADMINTON IN INDIA Ace shuttler said she wont mind biopic made on her life and wants it to highlight the sport of badminton rather than focus on her. "I think people are already aware of what's happening in my life and if a movie comes, it should be like sports and it should promote badminton and not me" , says saina who was in Madhya pradesh to receive a cash award of 50 lakhs from MP chief minister in an award function. "........Badminton is a technical game and to do a film on it, one need to learn its techniques also. Actress Dipika Padukone is fit to play her role as she is also a good bafminton player".
