Saina Nehwal’s ascent to the World No. 1 ranking transcended everything that happened in the $275,000 India Open badminton championship at the Siri Fort Indoor Complex here on Saturday.
After a classic semifinal-clash of former and current World champions Intanon Ratchanok and Carolina Marin ended in the premature exit of the second seeded Spaniard, Saina was assured of the top world ranking. Later, the top seeded Indian firmed it up with a 21-15, 21-11 victory to avenge the loss suffered to Japanese Yui Hashimoto in the 2013 edition here.
On a day when Saina and men’s second seed K. Srikanth — the conqueror of China’s Xuo Song in straight games — created the possibility of a first-ever Indian title-sweep in this event, the 2013 champion Ratchanok’s 21-19, 21-23, 22-20 victory over the reigning All England champion paved the way for the Olympic bronze medallist to hold the top rank next Thursday.
A jubilant Saina, who broke into the top-10 rankings in December 2008 and became World No. 2 in December 2010, described the moment as ‘a great one’ and declared “this should rank alongside my Olympic medal.”
Glaringly, Saina omitted her former mentor and coach P. Gopi Chand from the list of those she chose to thank while basking in glory on Saturday.
On his part, Gopi, too, was unavailable to comment on Saina’s feat.
Significantly, Vimal Kumar was all praise the role Gopi played in shaping Saina’s career. In terms of rankings, Saina has moved from seventh to first since joining hands with Vimal on September 1 last year.
As Saina said, “I owe it to my coach Vimal Kumar and his training methods that have helped me get my confidence back. He believed that if I improved my on-court movements, I could be World No. 1 by May this year. I still can’t believe I have realised my dream.
“I’ll probably believe it only after I see my name as No. 1 player (next week),” said Saina, set to play her third straight final after having made the title-clashes of Grand Prix Gold in Lucknow in January and the All England championship earlier this month.
Saina, who thanked her parents and Prakash Padukone for all the support, said, “Following the World championship (in August last) I was low on confidence after losing to the same players again and again.
“That’s when I decided to join Vimal Sir (in Bangalore). He gave me the confidence to perform. The changes he brought about in my game have helped me win titles again.”
The results (semifinals, prefix denotes seeding): Men: 6-Victor Axelsen (Den) bt 8-Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) 22-24, 17-11; 2-K. Srikanth (Ind) bt Xue Song (Chn) 21-16, 21-13.
Women: 1-Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt Yui Hashimoto (Jpn) 21-15, 21-11; 3-Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) bt 2-Carolina Marin (Esp) 21-19, 21-23, 22-20.
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