“If you are focused on winning a medal, then the draw doesn’t matter. You just have to take it match by match and give your best.”
These words from chief coach P. Gopi Chand no doubt underline the single-minded determination needed to perform at one’s best, and not get bogged down by the sight of a higher-ranked rival in the draw.
However, the truth is, the draw does make a difference to every player. Whether strong or not-so-strong, every individual is impacted at the sight of his/her prospective rivals in the draw.
On Tuesday, when the draws were made in Rio, the seven-member Indian contingent must have felt uneasy — some more than others. Fifth seed Saina Nehwal is clearly the country’s best bet for a medal. The 2012 bronze medallist has it easy in the league phase. Should Saina improve her 9-1 head-to-head record against Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in the pre-quarterfinals, she faces defending champion Li Xuerui.
Li Xuerui looms largeIt must be remembered that the Chinese favourite holds an intimidating 12-2 record against Saina. More significantly, since winning the Olympic gold in 2012, Xuerui has beaten Saina in all eight encounters. Therefore, Saina will be required to break the mental barrier against her nemesis. Time has now given Saina the opportunity, on the big stage, to turn it around against the defending champion.
World No. 10 P.V. Sindhu, a two-time World championship medallist but currently far from her best, will have to deal with Canada’s Li Michelle in the league stage. Sindhu has a score to settle since the Hong Kong-born girl beat her both in the team and individual events of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Should Sindhu beat Michelle, she will run into the in-form eighth-ranked Chinese Taipei girl Tai Tzu Ying, to whom she lost in the Asian championship in April. The winner faces the prospect of meeting Olympic finalist and former World No. 1 China’s Wang Yihan.
In men’s singles, 11th-ranked K. Srikanth will find it easy in the league. But in the pre-quarterfinals, he is scheduled to play World No. 5 Jan O Jorgensen. The two have not clashed since December 2014 when the Dane won for the second time in three matches. The winner of their match will play two-time winner and defending champion Lin Dan.
Between the two doubles combinations, both ranked 21st, G. Jwala and Ashwini Ponnappa have reasons to be more optimistic of making the quarterfinals than Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy. Both are the lowest-ranked pairs in their four-team groups and therefore not expected to reach the knockout stage.
To advance, Jwala and Ashwini need to win two matches in a group that consists of World No. 1 Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi (Japan), 11th-ranked Eefje Muskens-Selena Piek (the Netherlands) and 17th-ranked Puttita Supajirakul-Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Thailand). Indeed, it is a tough ask for the Indians but these girls are capable of pulling off the unexpected.
However, it will be a climb too steep for Attri and Reddy. With World No. 2 Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan (Indonesia), fifth-ranked Chai Biao-Hong Wei (China) and eighth-ranked Hiroyuki Endo-Kenichi Hayakawa for company, the Indians may find it tough to claim even a single game.
So, realistically, Saina appears the only Indian hope for a medal, that too if she manages something that she has not done since mid 2012 — get past Li Xuerui.
In the last Olympics, fourth seed Saina was the strongest non-Chinese in the field. That helped Saina stay away from the Chinese till the semifinals. This year, a better-prepared and more mature Saina is most likely to be against Li Xuerui who no longer looks invincible. But personally for Saina, the presence of Li Xuerui in her quarter of the draw is not good news.
Unlike the men’s section, there are no clear favourites among the women’s for the medals in Rio. That’s why the unpredictable, or call it inconsistent, form of the top-eight women allows equal hope to everyone in contention. And that includes Saina.
