Saina Nehwal cracks the Olympic code

All through her career, ever since she started playing badminton when she was nine years old, she’s never won a match like this. And yet, when it happened, it gave India her biggest gift on the international stage: an Olympic bronze medal. Indian badminton finally cracked the Olympic code.

Expectedly, it was Saina Nehwal who delivered. The bronze medal didn’t come in the most ideal way – her opponent Wang Xin retired after leading by a game (21-18, 1-0 retd) — but Indian sports fans will not complain.

Saina was all bright smiles while soaking in the realization of being India’s first Olympic badminton medalist. “I still can’t believe it, because in badminton I didn’t believe India could get a medal,” she began. “This is due to (coach) Gopi and my parents’ hard work and all the well-wishers in India.”

“This is due to (coach) Gopi and my parents’ hard work and all the well-wishers in India.”

Her coach Gopichand revealed that her bronze had finally erased his disappointment at having missed a medal himself, at the Sydney Olympics. “I think it’s a great moment for Indian badminton,” he said. “I hope we can produce more players, for which we need infrastructure around the country and better coaching methods. We need to be like a pack.”

The medal came under rather unusual circumstances. For much of the third-place play-off match, Saina trailed Wang Xin. The Chinese world No.2 had a 4-2 head-to-head record going into the match, although Saina had won their last encounter in December.

The Chinese girl dominated from the beginning, using steep lefty slices from the back court to have the Indian scrambling around the court. On the occasions that Saina attacked, Wang Xin’s defence measured up. Xin steadily built up a lead, going from 9-6 to 17-10; and the Indian looked in danger of being overwhelmed by the Chinese girl’s pace and placement.

There was some hint of trouble for the Chinese, as Xin doubled over after the rallies, and Saina believed the Chinese girl was tiring. The Indian fought back from a 14-20 deficit, saved four game points, but then suddenly, Xin collapsed to the floor in pain. “I didn’t know it was serious,” said Saina. “I thought she was tired.” Xin resumed after taping her left knee and immediately took the first game with a smash.

Just a point into the second game, she fell to the floor again, and this time her coaches called it off.

“I’ve never won a match like this,” said Saina. “I was lucky today. It’s sad, what happened to her, but I was confident of winning. I didn’t want to win this way. I wanted a good win. It’s a difficult sport for women in India…. I still can’t believe it. I was scared to look at the news all these days. I just didn’t read any paper, because I didn’t want to feel the pressure.”

Asked how she had prepared for the bronze medal match, she said: “I slept well last night. I actually couldn’t sleep the night before my semifinal. I’d wanted to be in the final. That didn’t happen so I wasn’t tense for today’s match. My main aim was to do well. Now I will watch some movies and take a break, then start working again.”