NEW DELHI: India's top badminton player Saina Nehwal is determined tocome out of the rough patch and says she is in perfect shape for nextmonth's World Championships in China.
Sincewinning the Olympic bronze medal in the London Games, the World No.3has hit a rough patch. Her last win was at the Denmark OpenSuperseries in October.
Thisyear, Saina failed to defend her titles at the Thailand Open GrandPrix and Indonesia Open Super Series and only reached thequarterfinals at the Singapore Open.
"Afterthe Indian Open (April), I got six weeks' break. I was suffering froma knee injury and then again I fractured my toe. Then I couldn't getmuch time to prepare for the tournament in Thailand, Indonesia andSingapore," said Saina on the sidelines of the launch of IndianBadminton League (IBL) school programme initiative - Shuttle Express.
"Iwas not happy with what was happening to me. When you get injured,you are not in the best mental shape. You always have doubts. So itwas a mix of lack of preparation and fitness that I performed badlyin those three tournaments," said Saina.
Afterthe Thailand Open she dropped to No.4 but again moved up a placeafter rising star Ratchanok Intanon failed to participate inIndonesia and Singapore. It pushed the Hyderabadi shuttler to No.3 asonly 462 points separated them before the latest rankings.
Sainapulled out of the Malaysian Open and the break has helped her getback to full fitness for the Worlds in Guangzhou, China, being heldAug 5-11.
"Ihad six weeks to prepare for the World Championships. Touchwood, I amnow in good shape and I have worked hard for the tournament. I haveimproved my game and worked hard on the areas in which I needed to,"said Saina.
Sainaalso said that she was eagerly waiting for the inaugural IBL.
"Ithink it (IBL) is the best thing that happened to Indian badmintonsince the London Olympics. The money is good and the experience ofplaying with international players will be great for local players,"she said.
"Astart is very important. We may not get players in the first season,but who knows we will get 20, 30 players from the next season,"she said.
Askedabout the absence of top Chinese players from the IBL, Saina said: "Ithink they are not open to such tournaments. And moreover theirleague and national games is also in August. But they should be opento tournaments like the IBL. However, seven of the top-10 players areplaying in IBL. There is still some time and I hope some Chineseplayers will turn up."
TheHyderabadi also hoped that big names will own IBL franchises.
"Bignames are very important. Dhoni, Sachin all are welcome to own IBLfranchises and it would be really exciting," she said.
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