"Have Always Been A Fighter": Saina Nehwal On Finding Her Old Touch Again
NDTV
Saina Nehwal, who has had a tough last few years mainly due to a knee injury, notched up a fighting 21-17, 12-21, 21-19 win over world No. 24 Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal on Tuesday vowed to keep fighting as she believes she has the game to match the best in the business. The former world No. 1, who has had a tough last few years mainly due to a knee injury, notched up a fighting 21-17, 12-21, 21-19 win over world No. 24 Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in her opening match. "I have always been a fighter, I like to challenge," said the 32-year-old from Hyderabad, who will take on Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China next.
"See, my mind sometimes stops working after losing so many matches. You are losing and losing but then today I was not thinking about match points. This was giving me tension the last few matches because I was not pulling off matches.
"Confidence was lacking today but I am happy I played without any knee issues. The last few months, it was gradual improvement. I worked on my stamina, overall hitting game and everything went well today," said Saina.
Saina, whose best result in 2022 was a quarter-final finish at the Singapore Open, said it was important to win a first-round match to get the self-belief back.
"I was getting tough players in first round. I had to pull out such matches so that I can get confidence and play against the best players. At the moment, I can be good against the top players," she added.
