For Saina, entering top-10 is beginning of sterner test

18-year-old says she will now aim to break into top-5 over the next 12 months; coach Pullela Gopichand believes her best is yet to come

Thursday morning brought good news for Saina Nehwal. Her father Harvir Singh was the first to realise that Saina had for the first time broken into the top-10.
It was the icing on the cake in a year in which she reached the quarterfinals of the Beijing Olympics and won the Chinese Taipei Open, her second Grand Prix crown and also reached the semis of the Singapore Super Series and the China Masters Super Series. At 18, Saina enjoyed her best year.

She went into this season wondering if she had the legs and the game to take on top-10 players in the world but she has emerged with flying colours. Beating Chen Wang of Hong Kong, then ranked No.5 in the world in the pre-quarterfinals of the Beijing Olympics was one of her memorable wins.

“It has been a perfect year for me. At the start of the year my aim was to break into the top-10,” Saina told DNA from Hyderabad. She knows that a litmus test awaits her now.

“It’s going to be very tough for me to stay in the top-10 club. I will have to win the big games in Super Series, Grand Prix and Gold Grand Prix events and will have to consistently beat the best in the world. This year, I reached the semifinals and quarterfinals of Super Series events but from here on I will have to reach finals and win such events. Otherwise, there is the danger of me slipping down to the 20s or 30s in the ranking. Things are going to get harder from here, but if I can stay fit and train hard then I should be able to enter the top-5 and stay there over the next year. Being in the top-5 is my aim over the next 12 months,” Saina added.

While she is set to play in the Korea and Malaysia Super Series in January, Saina has one eye on the All England Championship and the World Championship scheduled to be held in Hyderabad in August.

“It’s most important that I enjoy my game. I try not to get bogged down by the pressure of playing the big tournaments. Hopefully, in spite of the increased expectations on me, I will be able to enjoy my success,” Saina added.

Pullela Gopichand, her coach of four years, said that Saina’s rise to the top-10 could have been faster if she hadn’t played in the Youth Commonwealth Games and the World Junior Championships, both of which she won. “Most top players don’t play in the junior championships but Saina represented the country. But another way of looking at it is that if she played on the senior tour instead of the junior championships she would have been in the top-10 by October,” Gopichand told DNA.

The National coach believes that being in the top-10 will give Saina some breathing space as she will not have to take on the best players in early rounds of big events.

“Saina will need a right mix of playing top-level tournaments and also creating a window for four to six weeks for practice and training. That would be the perfect recipe for the next 12 months or so.”

Gopichand said that though Saina didn’t start the year in the right frame of mind as she was upset that she hadn’t taken her chances against top players last year, she bounced back and showed heart to give some memorable performances. “What we shouldn’t forget is that she is just 18,” Gopichand said. “There is a lot of work ahead.”