All in the Blood

She is the newest teen on the block and tipped as the next big thing in her sport badminton. Read on for Saina Nehwal`s exclusive interview with Priya Ganoo.

sainanehwal Our country's obsession with sports personalities, especially cricketers is well known and many have even complained about how cricket-obsessed our nation is. But if you go by the recent trends, this seems to be changing and athletes from various sports are getting the recognition they ought to receive for their hard work and accomplishments. One such athlete is Ace Shuttler Saina Nehwal who has taken the entire nation by storm with her heroics on the badminton court.

Still in her teens, Saina has a host of International and National records to her name. She was the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. She followed it up with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta which resulted in her being the first ever Indian to win a Super Series Tournament.

Saina was immediately dubbed as the female Gopichand but she says there is no pressure on her. "It is my privilege to be called a female Gopichand but I want to be known as Little Saina. I want to show all my well wishers that Indian girls are equally good at the sport."

She was born to parents who were athletes themselves and this helps any sportsperson in a big way. Born in Haryana but brought up in Hyderabad, Saina agrees that both the cities have reacted exceptionally positively to her success. "Both the cities have welcomed me and supported me in a big way."

Normal girls her age are busy attending college but Saina's profession of choice doesn’t allow her to make studies her priority. However she has a different take on this, "I study and work on my game. I want to achieve perfection in this. My coach and me train for almost eight hours a day and there is always a scope for improvement."

sainaceleb India has produced great badminton players but off late there had been a dearth in champion shuttlers till Saina broke onto the circuit. One of the reasons for the lack of quality players is the deficiency of funds and facilities for the budding athletes. "Big corporate houses must support sport in India and even the government must help sports people.” she asserts.

The Olympics is one of the biggest events for any athlete and Saina is looking forward to the 2012 version of the same. "Even though every win is meaningful to me, the Olympics are a dream for every sports person."

Off the court, she doesn’t seem to be a big fan of movies although SRK has found one more fan in the form of this young prodigy. Saina likes spending time with her contemporaries and they double up as friends too. A certain Macho – a male from the canine family, however rules the heart of our shuttle queen. "He wants to bite me when I come home because I stay away from for a number of days." Sounds like a normal teenager here, really?