The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Saina now a major threat to Chinese: Padukone

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Saina now a major threat to Chinese: Padukone

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The world women’s badminton, which was very much a preserve of Chinese shuttlers, has now found a worthy challenger in Saina Nehwal.

In a chat with The Hindu here, Prakash Padukone and U. Vimal Kumar, two greats of the game, acknowledged that Saina had finally arrived as one ‘among the best’.

“Till now the Chinese held all the aces and were feared by the rest. Saina, by consistently beating them, has now emerged as major threat to their domination,” said Padukone.

What he admired most about Saina’s triumph in the Indonesian Open was her ability to play on her natural Indian strengths. “Her strokes were deceptive, she varied her dribbles and flicks so well. She ran her rival around with a very tantalising and beguiling mix and controlled the net play. It reminded me of my own style when I was in my prime,” said Padukone.

“She did not get bogged down by reputation and played every game on merit. She indeed has become faster and fitter and thinks a lot on her feet. Given the present format of the game, it needs lot of quick thinking,” added Padukone.

So impressed is Padukone with the final match, that he wants to use video clips of the tie as a part of a lesson to his trainees at Padukone Badminton Academy.

Vimal Kumar said, “she is among the top five or six players in the world. “This kind of consistency makes her a unique player and Chinese should be now very wary of her. But given this rally point format, one cannot expect Saina to walk away with the title every time. So we should not be carried away now that she has won a very big one.”

High expectations

Expectations are bound to be there, given the fact that the World Championship at home is very much around the corner.

“There will be enormous pressure on her to do an encore. But fans should realise that it is not easy and and let her play the game, without hype and too much expectations,” said Vimal.

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