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Saina Nehwal wants to know where she stands: Coach Vimal Kumar

Vimal Kumar believes Saina Nehwal is in her career restart mode and she is slowly returning to her former greatness.

Saina Nehwal, Saina, Saina Nehwal injury, Saina Nehwal coach, Vimal Kumar, Vimal, Coach Vimal, Badminton India, Badminton Saina Nehwal had just lost her quarterfinal match in 35 minutes against Yiman Zhang of China. (Source: AP)

This part of Saina Nehwal’s career, Vimal Kumar calls the ‘restart.’ It’s a word the shuttler’s coach uses just once, during a conversation on the sidelines of the Tata Open International Challenge in Mumbai. Yet it is a thought he often implies these days. For it is a position his ward finds herself in for the first time in over seven years.

Over 4000 miles away from Mumbai in Macau, Nehwal had just lost her quarterfinal match in 35 minutes against Yiman Zhang of China, a teenager placed 216 notches below her in the world rankings. On any other day, a match against Zhang would have been an easy outing for the 26-year-old.

On any other day, the Macau Open itself would have been simple pickings.

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For all the tournament’s prestige and glamour, the entry list for this event has seen more of the upcoming players competing in the season’s last meet, and not for someone as established as Nehwal. For the past three years, the rising PV Sindhu too competed, and won a hat-trick of titles. But not this year.

World number one Tai Tzu Ying is gearing up for the year ending elite prize at Dubai – the Super Series Finals. So is Carolina Marin and Ratchanok Intanon, the second and third seeds. But Nehwal opted to head to Macau, having dropped to 10th in the world, though she was seeded number one. The next best ranked player was world number 20 Cheung Ngam Yi from Hong Kong, followed further by lower rung players. But Nehwal didn’t mind.

Festive offer

Though when the loss came, it was ominously a new Chinese.

But it was a way for her to get back to her once ruthless form after steadily recovering from the knee surgery she required just after her untimely group-stage Olympic exit. “The tournament is good for the next line of players. I’ve told her to think she’s among the next line. This is a restart. She has to start from scratch,” says Kumar. “It’s always good to go back to your basics when things aren’t going your way, that’s how you will get back.”

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For the first half of her career, Nehwal made a name for herself as a dogged rally player – who chased down every last shuttle and fought till the last point. A shrewd player who boasted the fitness to stand through long rallies and then go for the kill once the opponent tires. It was her injury-free fitness levels itself that gave her the consistency to give her a breakthrough into the top 10 for the first time in May 2009 – then just 19. And then the bronze at the London Olympics of 2012 as well as impressive consistency on the tour.

Which is what made her even more distraught about her sudden fall. Not too often before had the Hyderabadi languished under a prolonged period of harsh form combined with the possibility of losing to unheralded players. An injury to the right knee during the Olympics required immediate surgery, and brought about that long stretch of struggle. “This thing (injury) happening, that’s something she still cannot digest,” Kumar says. Her ranking too dropped, and for the first time in seven years, she fell out of the top 10.

But Nehwal is stubborn, a tenacious go-getter eager to get back to playing, and her winning ways. That she would play in the China Open a fortnight ago – following a period of under three months of recovery since the surgery – would surprise even Kumar. Then she would follow it up with an impressive quarterfinal finish at the Hong Kong Open.

Her participation in Macau may have been a surprise to most, given her stature, but Nehwal simply wanted more playing time to test herself. “She’s a player who thrives on competition. Before being fully ready, she wants to compete and know where she stands. But she has survived those rigours and is still continuing, three tournaments on the trot. It will give her confidence to climb back to the top,” he adds.

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There is a concern however, about Nehwal over-exerting her knee in her eagerness to get back to top form. So far the former world number one is going through a string of basic strength and footwork training. Nothing high-intensity yet. “When she wants to play, I give her my views. We discuss it and then she says, ‘I feel good. I want to compete,'” Kumar describes. “Nothing is going wrong with her leg. I’m not worried about the end result as long as she can cope with the rigours. Once the leg is holding up, then there is a lot of scope for her to come back,” he adds of this reboot.

The stern persistence to get back though had once taken a beating. There was ruthless criticism of the way she performed – despite playing with an injury – at Rio. It was a phase that Kumar needed to be at his motivational best to help his ward overcome both the physical and mental doubts. “When you’re a high profile sportsperson in the country, you just have to accept it because you cannot blame anybody for it,” he says. “Sportspersons are sensitive to it. But one good thing is that she forgets everything when she plays.”

In Macau, Nehwal didn’t mind the loss. It’s a tournament designed for those looking to reach to her level. But she’s in ‘restart’ mode. She has had to take a step back to move forward and push to the levels she is used to. “She’s an athlete used to winning, everything relates to that,” says her coach, a former national champion in his own right. It doesn’t matter right now, the quality of the field in which India’s fallen champion competes in. For her, it’s just another small step towards her former greatness.

First uploaded on: 03-12-2016 at 00:49 IST
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