With the Chinese strategic tactics, she will never win unless she could beat every Wang standing in her path.
Saina confident of good show in Olympic year PTI | Dec 28, 2011 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...show-in-Olympic-year/articleshow/11280827.cms Excerpts: HYDERABAD: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has recovered from her ankle injury and is looking forward to having a great run in 2012, the year of London Olympics. "This year there are some ups and downs because of the ankle injury. But still, I managed to play four finals and won one title in March. I reached the semifinals of Japan Open. I saw my form coming back in recent times. I am happy that I got my confidence back. I used to feel little weak, especially my ankle, now I am much better," said Saina. ..."We will get two months or so before Olympics to train in areas in which I am weak. So we will have to look at it and plan accordingly," she said. ..."I was losing to few of the lower opponents. I was not happy about it. Finally, when I got back into the tournament, I was just thinking that it is going to be tough. I was scared. We did few things which made by mind more relaxed and especially it was all about mental conditioning. "I was taking too much unnecessary pressure. That is what me and Gopi sir discussed; I think it really worked very well. Another three-four days to go for the Korean, Malaysian Open. Again in two weeks, I could hardly do anything extra, but I am going with the confidence that I will do well in these two tournaments," she said. ..."It is not unfair. Because, I have won so many events, people want me to win. Me, being the single person get the kind of pressure. But I have to handle that. I have to do something for my mind to relax. To be focused. "I want to do well for my country. I want to win medal for them. That can happen only if I keep away all these things from my mind," she said.
Nice to see that there's Indian fans in the stadium last week in Mas Open too.. photo credits to 100 plus malaysia.
is it just me or what but i thought Saina looks old.. I got shocked last time when I first saw her play(in yr2008), the commentator said she's the world junior champion.. I thought she was around 30yrs old..
It is just a matter of perspective, i think. When I first time watch her match, i just thought that she is good, & have the capabilities to challenge CBA WS.
i think she's good too. Before the commentator said anything about her world junior title, i was thinking 'how come i've never seen her playing in tourneys?' as I thought she was old that time
Saina Nehal can carry on dreaming because you will never win by the lack of respect and overconfidence. Instead of walk the talk, you rate your chances of winning by belittling your opponents and explicitly labelled the top three Chinese as the major threat to your success, alienating other players. Guess what you have other players to beat too from other country, so show some respect or at least acknowledge their skill level before you start playing against them. Today we just witnessed a newly crowned All England Championship,Li Xuerui, a player you claimed in the media before the tournament she is not that tough as a opponent and only Wang Xin would be an obstacle in the semis. She taught you a big lesson there, exercise some decency to be modest and respect for your opponents. That explains why you will never be a great player like the top Chinese players or even players like Tine Baun and Camillia Martin
Reporters, here in India, usually hype the small things ormisinterpret the statements. I am sure Saina would have never said this but inmost of the news articles it has been published so. She has never said anythingabout winning the tournament as there’s already so much pressure on her. Sheeven in an interview stated that the first and second rounds are going to betough. So its weird that she would call Li Xuerui ‘no that tough’, given thatshe had lost to the same opponent three time and the last time was in Francewhere she lost 29-30 in the second game.
I wondered if she could be misquoted, so I did some searching. Here is the quote, On the Chinese challenge, Saina said, "I am not worried about it. I know I should beat a few Chinese to win the title. I may face Xuerui in the quarters. She is not very tough to beat. In semis I would meet Wang Xin. It will be a tough contest. But I am not thinking that far and as always I will concentrate only on the first match I play," she said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...es-All-England-dream/articleshow/12153765.cms
i think what she wanted to say was Wang Xin is tougher opponent than Li Xuerui. She may have been misquoted but we never know. English is not our mother tongue after all, there may have been some mistake.
Miqilin7 and Rajat Actually you both are correct to some extent. For some reason I am inclined to accept Miqilin7's opinion because I got the same impression of her from another interview. Here is article http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/more-sports/badminton/Saina-Nehwal-powers-her-way-into-Swiss-Open-quarters/articleshow/12300677.cms "The match was very easy but I lost the first set because of line judgement. Later, I faced little trouble and was comfortable in the next two. On Wednesday, the drift was less but today it was too much from one side. It took sometime to adjust but overall it was easy," Saina told TOI. But again, in her defense, she may have been misquoted or she wasn't articulate enough or she could have said it in a better way. That doesn't mean that she is an angel and always does the right thing....She is young and we all know that when people that young after achieving little success kind of become over confident some times... But that being said, we sitting in front of our televisions and laptops cannot assume what kind of person she is without knowing her in person.... I being an Indian living in an english speaking country, I have been in situations where I was misquoted since not all Indians are articulate in english meaning we try to translate from our native language to english word to word. Which some times conveys different meaning than what it is intended.... As I said I myself have been in situations where I was misunderstood and was later taught my friends how to express by my thoughts. She could have said something like "by looking at her record she was more comfortable playing against a non-chinese player or she has to work more on her game to beat the players ranked above her and since Li-Xuerei was ranked below her she will try and beat her to meet Wang Xin in the Semis." For a matter of fact, her record against non-chinese players is very good and also against the players ranked below her apart from few lapses here and there. But still there is something called respect, etiquette and, most important, sportsmanship. I am a huge fan of her yet I cant ignore the facts. I hope she realises her on & off court mistakes and works on her speaking skills to keep up her image.
I'd give her a pass, I think players should be free to express themselves as long as it not racist or unnecessarily insulting as in this case, if I read all the facts right. Anyways, I like when athletes are honest and if they happen to say something they later regret, all the better!
Congratulations to SN for her back-to-back win of the WS title of Swiss Badminton Open Tournament. In the 2012 tournament she beat WSX in straight games 21-19, 21-16. SN has so far beaten most Chinese players except for WYH and JYJ and if her coach could determine the cause of the failures, then SN is on the way to bigger wins.
Congrats to Saina!! Saw her in KL during the Malaysian Open SS this year and she's such a humble lady! There you go...breaking the Chinese dominance in this one, as what I had wished her
Looks like this time she has done her homework on WSX. Amazing how that makes her work easier. But she s not there yet until she can take out 2 CHN WS in a row. She has the experience advantage in OG because all the CHN WS will be OG newbies.
Saina Nehwal needs to keep adding variety to strokes: Pulela Gopichand PTI | Mar 19, 2012, 04.40PM IST http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...kes-Pulela-Gopichand/articleshow/12329289.cms Excerpts: "It is a very important victory for Saina. She was playing well even last year but some close matches here and there, which could have gone either way, cost her a lot. But today she beat Shixian quite comfortably in the end," said Gopichand. ..."In a way, they had figured her out but it is easier for them. For China, it is just one Saina but for her it is five or six Chinese against whom she has to compete. They naturally target her but still she has done well," he said. "She is playing the Chinese shuttlers day in and day out, so Saina needs to keep working on her weaknesses and adapt as a player not only physically and technically but will also have to take care of the mental aspects," Gopichand said. "She has been training well and worked hard after her loss in All England, we made a few changes. She needs to go back, evolve and add variety to her repertoire of strokes," Gopichand said.
That's just plain arrogance and immature of a player to comment in such a way about other players. Misquoted or not, she should realise what's consequences of making bold statements before the match has even been completed. Recently, articles were written and reproduced again and again referring to the bad criticisms she always receives when she lost a match. Well of course you should expect such a backlash when you assert such confidence and optimism in a such way you have promised there will be nothing less than a victory. I dont know her in person and on the side note, I am not racist. Personally I feel every comment she makes on the newspaper describing how vulnerable or fearful Chinese players are towards her; her chances of winning the title before it even started gives away every single fact about her personality which does not fit the criteria of being a Great Player. No wonder Chinese players dont pay heed to what she says because it's full of hot air..
It's just a GPG event..who the f cares lol....furthermore it's a bit of an exaggeration to say Chinese dominance is broken just by beating one off-form Chinese player like WSX. A true player that breaks the dominance is by beating all Three Wangs at the same time in the same tournament..
Dude, you need to take a chill pill! If you haven't noticed as yet, this is a thread created by fans of Saina who wish her the best and want her to succeed. The fact that you don't like her is obvious and that's fine but spewing venom on her own fan page, just reeks of hatred and jealousy which is entirely unwarranted! Also this haterd makes you quite myopic with regards to Saina. Coming back to your point about her being 'apparently' arrogant... Well whats wrong with that?? She has reached the world stage on her own merit and is proud of it. I think that she has every right to be whatever she chooses to be... you don't need to like her. A lot of superstars in almost every field have been perceived to be arrogant in the media and Lin Dan is a perfect example of that! Anyways, according to me... far from being arrogant, she's actually too respectful of the chinese. She understands that they dominate the Badminton circuit (more so in Women's badminton) and almost every other non-chinese player dreams and aspires to 'break' this dominance. It simply means that every other player wants to be right at the pinnacle of the sport and in terms of Badminton, it means defeating the Chinese! Every other player be it Tine, Julianne or Ratchanok also keep saying in every pre tournament interview that they want to defeat the Chinese. Does that mean, everyone is arrogant? Finally a very important thing that you fail to understand (and probably you never will) is the fact that she is a woman playing badminton in a country which lives and breathes cricket! We have an entire population of 1.2 billion people glued on their TV screens desperately hoping for Sachin to make a century against Bangladesh but not even 1% of the people know that Saina actually defended her Swiss open title on that day. To be able to still compete and remain at the top, one needs the mental fortitude fit for champions and for those who know her, Saina is a champion in every right! So, if you cant say something nice, that ok... Just keep all that hatred away!
I can't see her beating all 3 chinese in row to win a major tournament. She could manager or 1 or 2 of them along the way but not all 3. The Chinese wall is too strong for the Indian or for the Danish for that matter, but Saina is better than the tall Dane, who is getting too old.
