For all her career, Saina Nehwal has been a barrier-breaker. The first Indian woman to win a Super Series title, the first to win the Commonwealth Games gold, the only one to make the semifinal of the Olympic Games....
To that impressive list, she added one more first at the Wembley Arena on Saturday, wearing a medal that was in her dreams the last four years.
“An Olympic medal in badminton was considered an impossibility. I have shown that it is very much possible,” said a beaming Saina after winning the bronze at London 2012.
Ever since her bitter defeat in Beijing four years ago, Saina has been working towards realising this dream and though it came in fortuitous circumstances, she said had deserved it.
“No one really knows how hard I have worked for it. My first goal was to reach the final here but I felt really disappointed after yesterday’s defeat. I didn’t even talk to my father. I told on television that I was sorry that I couldn’t get the gold. Today, our flag will go up and I am happy.”
Saina said she felt strange when the match ended with Wang retiring. “Till today, I haven’t won a match like this. Perhaps I got lucky, perhaps the medal is written for me. But I was very confident of winning the second game. She was tiring and asking for water, asking for the court to be mopped...”
It’s been Saina vs China in women’s events in recent times and even here, two Chinese and one Saina filled up the top three places. “It’s always going to be Saina vs China,” she remarked. “And now that I have won a medal here, I will be more confident taking them on. I know they are scared of playing me -- when Wang beat me yesterday, the joy on her face told me how much the win meant to her. It is a great feeling but I have to be fit and ready for them, ready for long rallies, long matches and for fighting till the last point.”
Saina had targeted gold here and she said her semifinal defeat was a case of strategy gone wrong. “Even in the semifinals, the plan was to play long rallies but I began playing her game and lost out. Today, that match was in my mind when I started but later, I succeeded in playing my game. Still I would have preferred clinching the medal with a good win,” she said, hoping that her win will bring more girls into badminton.
“It has been a difficult sport in India because nobody had done it before. Now that I have shown it is possible to do well, perhaps more girls will come into the sport. We do have a few players coming up, like PV Sindhu, who is doing well. I still hope we have more players like in China or South Korea,” said the Hyderabadi.
Celebrations await in India for the bronze-winner but for Saina, it will be business as usual. “I may take a short break, watch a couple of movies perhaps. But I plan to work harder. There are many more tournaments coming up. I will also watch the CD of my game against Yihang, to learn what mistakes I had made.”