Saina Nehwal gets called lucky for benefitting from her opponents’ misfortunes, but as someone who underwent the same misery herself in the full public glare of the 2016 Olympics, she knows the haplessness of jelly feet and a giveaway limp. The Indonesia Masters Super500 title came along with the agony of watching opponent Carolina Marin, who walked off with a right knee injury handing Nehwal the final. The Indian, though, had done well to clear the semifinals, where she got the better of China’s He Bingjiao after what has been a dozen years of competing against the cream.
“I’m not very happy with how I got it (title) today because it is unfortunate Carolina got injured. But I’m happy I could reach the finals with such difficult opponents as He Bingjiao, because I’ve never played her and she’s been beating good players,” Nehwal told BWF. “To beat (Nozomi) Okuhara, He Bingjiao and even (Pornpawee) Chochuwong who beat Akane is good since everyone’s in good shape. Even Dinar Dyah in the first round — I almost lost that one. She was playing amazingly well, and troubling me a lot,” she added.
The final might’ve been handed to her in fortuitous circumstances, but Saina has had to find her way around the Chinese, ever since she got rid of three of them back-to-back during her first triumph in Indonesia. It was her hard-fought semifinal win against Bingjiao, in fact, that put her in a position to stake claim to the title this week.
The Saina vs China story isn’t exactly about the Indian star ending the superpower’s dominance in women’s singles — that’s an attractive notion, but apocryphal. Nehwal sure registered early resistance to their unbroken hegemony a decade ago, but those like Malaysian Mew Choo Wong and Danish Tine Rasmussen-Baum actually swooped down on titles at the expense of the Chinese. Credit for mopping up the tail of the dragon, goes to PV Sindhu — who turned up at the World Championships and scythed through the Chinese.
Where Nehwal repeatedly dents Chinese plans, though, like a thousand pebble pricks to a puncturing tyre, is in staying put and never going away. En route, she has nicked wins off at least three generations of top Chinese players — shuttlers between ages 20 (Chen Yufei) and 34 (Zhu Lin). Nehwal is 28, with an insatiable appetite for wins with a mended knee. And nowhere close to retiring.
In the semifinals, she reminded the latest — He Bingjiao — of what a stubborn resolve, with some sharp smashing in its wake, can achieve. Nehwal rallied to win 18-21, 21-12, 21-18 against the talented left-hander from whom the Chinese expect a lot heading into Tokyo — but whose brittle mind the Indian exploited while closing out the match from 16-all in the decider.
Bingjiao is quirky and compact in her strokes, having the rare distinction of knowing how to stop Tai Tzu Ying when the Taiwanese is on song. But she is prone to errors against aggressive players — a rampaging Marin once made her cry on court. Saina can be just as effective, without screaming. Leading 10-6 in the decider, Saina had stumbled to 16-16, and then upped the pace of rallies and sharpened the mental game to win 21-18.
What baffles Chinese coaches who’ve unleashed their own talent in short, effective, Olympic cycle spurts and seen them retiring by 26, is how Nehwal is still around. She knows what most Chinese struggle with — overcoming injury.
Nehwal first spoilt Chinese plans of an Olympic podium sweep in London — Wang Xin (then 27) never recovered from the injury that caused her to forfeit. As many as 43 players were in the fray in London besides the three Chinese; but Nehwal fetched up to pounce on bronze.
Nehwal was 3-4 head-to-head going into the London play-off against Xin, while she held a happy 4-1 score against former Chinese World champ Lu Lan (31 years now) and 4-2 against Wang Lin (29). She was 7-7 apiece against Asian Games champ Wang Shixian (also 28 and a massive rally player, like Nehwal). All have long retired — the gruelling games taking a toll on their bodies, while the Indian plods on well beyond her mid-20s.
Of course, she struggled against Olympic-pedigreed Wang Yihan (31) who led her 11-5, Li Xuerui (28) 12-2 and Xie Xingfang (37) 2-0, while the Indian never managed to beat reserve Jiang Yanjiao (0-5), four years her senior. But unlike Sindhu, she took them on in their prime (lead-up to 2012) and not on the downward spiral, where injuries (Yihan’s back and Xuerui’s knee) and different priorities greatly tempered Chinese performances.
Moreover, Nehwal didn’t allow the next batch to shade her — she led the towering Sun Yu 6-2, and the even taller Gao Fangjie 1-0. Half a dozen pretenders — such as Suo Di, Deng Xuan, Han Li and Yao Xue and current reserve Chen Xiaoxin — she has put away, all eager to scalp the older Indian Top Tenner.
London 2012 champ Li Xuerui, also 28, is just starting to attempt a comeback after her knee caved in two years ago, though Nehwal already has a Worlds and Asiad bronze each, returning from her own bad knee in 2016.
The Indian has not only stayed relevant but perennially knocks on doors of the medal rounds, with her mix of astutely tweaked game, indefatigable mental strength and the reliable rasping smash that’s never left her side.
Only a month back, Nehwal was nursing a prickly shin. “I was surprised with the last two weeks — the match against Sindhu, January 1, was the first I attempted since the shin trouble. The doctor told me no running, no impact, it has to be only slow movements. For two weeks — it was only light sessions in on-court training,” she says, of fighting off niggles daily even as young upstarts come at her with pacy, power-packed games and other equally young rivals hang up their boots.
Nehwal’s longevity has begun to baffle most who have waited to see the back of her. She turns up at most big events, challenging for the medals (even if bronze), that her closest contemporaries (in experience) Ratchanok Intanon and Sung Ji Hyun are struggling to pick. The gold might’ve remained out of her reach, but no one can say with certainty that Nehwal won’t jog up to medal contention at Tokyo.
Chinese coaches may be loath to grant her the same respect they reserve for Sindhu — taller, quicker, more strokeful. But no Chinese will write off Saina Nehwal, till that name pops up in tournament draws. He Bingjiao was left lying prone trying to swat her away.
