Why Saina is a great hope for Indian Sports

“Saina Nehwal (born 17 March 1990) is an Indian woman player of Badminton. She won the 2006 Philippines Open, to become the first Indian woman to win a four-star badminton event. She is currently coached by Pullela Gopichand's Academy in Hyderabad. Previously she was coached by S. M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winner.

Her play is dominated by power. Both her parents were former state champions in Haryana. She has been the runner-up twice in the National women's single event, losing both times to Aparna Popat in the final. She holds the Under-19 women's single title.

In the 2006 World Junior badminton tournament when Saina lost to top seed Chinese Wang Yihan 13-21, 9-21 said, "She is a better player than I am. She recently beat seniors world number one Xie Xing Fang. But she is beatable. I can beat her."Saina is currently under the coaching of Gopichand.

In a routine manner this information is on Saina’s wall of social site facebook,but when you enter  this name on Google search, you will find 7,80000 result in 0.07 second. Now a days Saina is the brightest hope in Indian sports. She has achieved a lots, but her sports journey is still mid way. Saina dreams, thinks, tries, practices and achieves it. According to Saina, “I feel proud of my achievements. I am very happy with what I am doing now and I want to continue doing that."

It was during the Melbourne Games that a 16-year-old Saina burst into the limelight when the then coach Vimal Kumar chose her as the top singles player against Singapore in the bronze medal match and the Hyderabadi delivered by helping India win the bronze.Four years later, the Hyderabadi has risen in stature to such an extent that she has become a Khel Ratna awardee.

There are over a dozen boys in Saina's life. They all have a name, but she calls each of them 'Partner'.  Pullela Gopichand, the former All England champion and national coach, is happy to be the 'Bhaiyya' to the star pupil in his academy. "I gained a lot by practising with boys," says Saina. "Thanks to them I never had the problem of sparring partners." You can almost hear the collective cringe in the boy's locker room at the Gachibowli complex outside Hyderabad.

Saina Nehwal is famously friendless, though not lonely. It is in stark contrast to her more-known more or less namesake, Sania, who hails from the same city and attracts more attention. Saina, it seems, makes the news for not making the news.

Like every normal teenager, Saina itches to go out with friends, indulge in gossip, eat junk food, stay up late to watch late night movies and secretly gush away over the man on the screen, but then the hope of Indian badminton is no ordinary teen."Like other girls, I too want to be appreciated for my looks, want to dress well, but I suppress every such desire," says Saina with the wisdom of an adult.At 19, when for most girls deciding between bangs and fringes which constitutes the crisis of their lives, Saina, who is a Padma Shri awardee,is not only an accomplished star but also knows where she is headed in the years to come.

She has been doing this since she was seven. Back then, she would cling to her father on his scooter, half asleep both ways - not fully awake in the morning and completely sapped in the evening. Today, when those waking hours have borne fruit, she travels in the well-deserved comfort of a car. The mode of travel may have changed, but there is no change either in the destination or the schedule.

Much of her success has come from her discipline. Says her coach Gopi, "If we tell her something, she will follow it blindly. In 2007, we wanted to reduce the flab in her body. The diet chart we gave was very tough to follow. We told her to give up all the junk food and take only one 'phulka' in the afternoon and one in the evening. She religiously followed our instructions and you can see the results."

For six days in a week, Saina's schedule does not change. The alarm goes off at 6.00 am. After downing a glass of milk, she goes off to sleep again. This time she slips into what is called yoga nidra (yogic sleep). The one-hour process, Saina says, is very important. It's in this one hour that she assesses her previous day's practice, thinks about the best and worst sessions and focuses on the day's practice ahead.She arrives at the Badminton Academy at 7.30 a.m. Morning schedule consists mostly of court practice.

While the first four days are spent in practising strokes, the other days are meant for playing matches, mostly against boys of the academy. The morning schedule winds up at 11.00 am.

There is a four-hour gap to recover from the rigorous morning session. After lunch and a short rest, it is time again for another session. This time it's a short one-hour stint but perhaps the most crucial during her eleven-hour daily training schedule, for it involves just the two of them: Gopichand and her. It is dedicated to the correction of her game.

She hits the gym at 4.30 pm. Four days of weight training and two days of running on the treadmill for about 70 minutes.Sunday is a day of rest."I prefer to take as much rest as possible. When I am awake, I usually watch movies on TV. "I stopped going out to public places such as theatres,restaurants and malls after people started recognising me. I like having fans, no doubt, but I noticed that it was causing a lot of inconvenience to others around me." But that's not the only reason she doesn't hang out with friends.

"I stay at home because I have no friends. That makes me feel sad, but that's okay. I console myself by thinking, why have friends when I don't have the time for them."

The biggest sacrifice Saina thinks she has made in her pursuit of excellence is turning into a meat-eater . Born in a vegetarian family, it was a hard decision not just for Saina but for her parents as well. But they understood. After all, her scientist father Harvir Singh Nehwal is a former state-ranking badminton champ from Haryana and mother Usha Rani too has been a state-level shuttler.

"That's one sacrifice I had to make. I watched the Chinese and was convinced that if I have to beat them I should turn a non-vegetarian . They eat all kinds of food and I believe that's the reason why they are strong. Players need strength and the only way to get it is through eating meat. I eat a lot of chicken and I believe it has helped me to gain strength," says Saina, who has also given up junk food."I don't remember when I last had an ice cream. Most of what I eat is insipid, tasteless. The only part of my diet I like is the aloo parantha my mom makes," she adds.

One of the few things that she can take out time for is movies. " Hrithik Roshan is the most attractive Indian actor but I am not his fan. I love Shah Rukh Khan's acting. I watch all his movies," says Saina, who is still dismayed over a missed opportunity to meet him.

"A few weeks back we both were to attend an awards function but unfortunately I couldn't go. Nevertheless, I felt very happy when recently I read an interview in which Shah Rukh praised me. I was over the moon," Saina says.

Though badminton is everything for her there's one thing she's sure she will never attempt: the role of a coach. "I hate coaching. I can never imagine myself as a badminton coach. It's a tough job," she admits. She also says she doesn't know how to give back to the game that has given her so much. "I don't know, but I will remain indebted to this sport. It has given me everything in life."

Great  Saina! Keep it up.