Image Source - The Indian Express |
The 29-year-old gritty badminton champ is armed with oodles of talent and tact. Hailing from the streets of Haryana to becoming the first Indian to reach the top of the women's singles badminton ranking in 2015 is an apt story for a Bollywood blockbuster. Saina is the first Indian badminton player to win an Olympic medal, first to win the Commonwealth gold in the women's singles, first to win the World Junior and Commonwealth Youth titles and also the first Indian to win the Indian Superseries title. Nehwal's achievements, her focus on winning for India and her simplicity has endeared her to millions of sports fan, not only in India but abroad as well.
Born to Usha Rani and Harvir Singh Nehwal in Hissar, the family decided to shift to Hyderabad and Saina was enrolled as one of the 20 kids in Gopichand's coaching camp. Saina’s journey has not been easy. She and her dad would wake up at 4:30 in the morning for the practice session and travel miles away from where she lived. Post-school she would go back for more practice. “The push from my parents was my strength. They have sacrificed a lot to help me reach where I am. Dad used to take loans from his friends to buy me rackets and pay for my coaching,” she remembers. Initially, it was hard monetarily but, after she began winning tournaments and sponsorships, money wasn’t a problem. Her dad used to tell her “Don’t bother much about money, just focus on your game”.
Saina's success can also be attributed to the former All England champion Pullela Gopichand who played a pivotal role during Nehwal’s formative years of training. Saina changed her training base camp from Hyderabad to Bangalore in 2014 and starting training under the former national champion Vimal Kumar, during her time in Bangalore she became the world number one women single shuttler, won three super series titles and reached the finals of the world championship and All England Badminton Championships. Saina quit Gopichand’s academy to get more special attention to improve in the areas where she was weak. Shortly after winning her second world medal in Gaslow in 2017, Nehwal resumed training under Gopichand. There were speculations that there was a rift between the two but a few interactions during the tournaments helped them bury the hatchet. In an interview with India Today, she said “It wasn’t a fight there were some things that I wanted to change and wanted to see how it all worked out with a little bit of change in my training. Gopichand is a fantastic coach, producing champion all this while”, she added, “I would like to thank Vimal sir for helping me out at that moment when I was struggling to beat top players and I was happy to have a little bit chance”.
Expectation from Saina was high in the 2016 Rio Olympics but due to her injury she lost to Ukraine’s Maria Ulitina, this tournament marked the rise of the then 22-year old PV Sindhu who got India its first silver medal in Badminton in the Olympics and the clash between the two best badminton players India has, the original poster- girl who put Indian badminton firmly on the international map and a player who made sure Saina wasn’t the only Indian female badminton player the world was talking about in the single arena. Sidhu is sixth in the world rankings which is higher than Saina who is currently on the ninth position. Although, P Gopichand coaches both the athletes, the two aren’t comfortable training together. "Sindhu was not comfortable training at the new academy. Since it is an individual sport, there will always be competition, so to hold on to her own tactics, she decided to train at the old academy after the Commonwealth Games," Sindhu's father PV Ramana told PTI. "If they train together, both will be able to gauge each other's weaknesses and also how fit the other is, what each is working on, what difficulties they are facing”, he added.
Both the players bring a unique beauty to the game of Badminton. Their hard work makes each one of us proud. While PV has just started, Saina’s name has gone beyond everyone's expectations. She has shown the world that she is still very much a force to reckon with.
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