Super Saina is Queen Kong

Against the 20-year-old Chinese on Sunday,Nehwal battled for an hour and 11 minutes and while she trailed at times,including throughout the opening set,the Indian never looked too far away from wresting initiative or launching a counter before being crowned a 15-21,21-16,21-17 winner.

Seven successive points early in the second set turned the momentum for the Hyderabadi,who held tight the lead thereafter to level the set scores. A defining Saina Nehwal trait developing in her career this year has been the sheer confidence she inspires should a match be pushed into the decider. So even while Chinese coaching thinktanks and players might fancy their chances at figuring out the Indian’s game and strokes,the 20-year-old has proved to be a touch nut to crack when the contest has boiled down to a war of jangling nerves.

Nehwal took control of the third 5-0 and later despite Wang shadowing her closely,managed three of the most commanding winners to go up 19-16,and finally win 21-17.

With this win,Saina tallies around 63,911 points and will stay on as the World No 4 rank behind Chinese Xin Wang (71,192),Shixian Wang (67,176) and Yihan Wang (65,308),but what she’s managed is to repeatedly raid Chinese citadels this year — accounting for former World champ Lu Lan,her nemesis from the Asian Championships Xuerui Lui and now Shixian Wang. Still the Chinese stable is bursting with talent and getting past the other two Yihan Wang and Xin Wang remains a challenge before the Olympics beckon.

While the youngster has shown immense belief and doggedness to hunt down rivals who’ve handed her defeats before,2010 has also seen the Indian strike consistency in her performance. A semifinal at the prestigious All England was followed in May with some strong wins to push India into the Uber Cup mains. June saw Nehwal string together a hat-trick of titles — the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold,followed by the Singapore Super Series and then defending her Indonesian Super Series crown from last year. Picking her tournaments with utmost care,Nehwal has managed to mix training with tournament play,though she will be disappointed with her losses at both the Asian Games and the World Championships.

The win at Hong Kong erased those painful losses as she beat back both rivals at the Queen Stadium.

Sandwiched in between those two disappointments,however,was the high-point of her year,when Nehwal beat Malaysian Mew Choo Wong in the final of the Commonwealth Games at Delhi after being a couple of match points down in the humdinger in front of a raucous home crowd.

“With each season,she’s doing better than the preceding year,though the CWG gold medal match was the defining moment of the year,” says coach Pullela Gopichand. “Now to match the Chinese consistently,it is important to stay on top in the endurance aspect. Physically she needs to match them all strength to strength,” he adds. “The next year will be tough. The first step is doing well to qualify for Olympics and then staying fit to excel in the Olympics,” the 20-year-old said later.

Games setback overcome

“It was fantastic especially since I didn’t do well in the Asian Games. I didn’t train much before this tournament and didn’t expect to win. May be because I practiced a lot before the Asian Games so I decided to relax but I am very happy to win it here,” Saina said.

Year-marked

2006: Saina,the national under-19 champion,stormed on the international scene by becoming the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament,the Philippines Open. She was also the runner up at the 2006 BWF World Jr Championships where she lost to the top seed.

2007: She won the gold at the National Games and also claimed the gold at the National badminton championships.

2008: Became the first Indian woman to reach quarter finals at the Olympics when she upset world No.5 Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller. In the quarters Saina succumbed to more experienced Maria Kristin Yulianti. But more tournament wins followed as she claimed the Chinese Taipei Open. This time she won the World Junior Badminton Championships title and also reached a Super Series semifinal for the first time.

2009: Adding to her firsts,she became the first Indian to win a BWF Super Series title by winning the Indonesia Open. After she reached the quarters of badminton world championship where she lost to the second seed,Saina was rewarded with the coveted Arjuna award.

2010: After she received the Padma Shri in January,Saina notched up triple titles winning the India Open Grand Prix gold,Singapore Super Series and the Indonesia Open Super Series on back- to-back Sundays,which took her to the world No.2 rank for a brief period. She followed it up with a Commonwealth Games gold but lost her winning momentum at the Asian Games where she was ousted in the quarters.