India Open 2023: 'Have always been a fighter, I like to challenge' - Saina Nehwal on her grey patch

On Tuesday, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal promised to keep battling as she accepts that she has the game to match the best in the business. The former world No. 1, who has had a hard last few years primarily due to a knee injury, scripted a fighting 21-17, 12-21, 21-19 victory over world No. 24 Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in her opening match.

"I have always been a fighter. I like to challenge myself. See, my mind sometimes stops working after losing so many matches. You are losing, but today I was not thinking about match points. It was giving me tension the last few games because I was not pulling off matches," said the 32-year-old Saina from Hyderabad.

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"Confidence was lacking today, but I am happy I played without knee issues. In the last few months, it was a gradual improvement. I worked on my stamina and overall hitting game, and everything went well today," Saina added, who will take on Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China next.

Saina, whose soundest result in 2022 was a quarterfinal finish at the Singapore Open, said it was essential to best an opening-round contest to regain self-belief. "I was getting tough players in the first round. I had to pull out of such matches to get confidence and play against the best players. At the moment, I can be good against the top players," she continued.

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"She [Mia] has been playing well against top players. So I can match the top players with coverage, speed and shots. I have improved in my movement, which made a lot of difference. I have been improving my knee and my body. The better my knees are, the better are my lunges," assessed Saina.

Asked about the most challenging thing to come to terms with in the last few years, Saina articulated, "Nothing, I mean, although, people will speak about you not performing, and it is natural. If I think about people, then I have to stop playing badminton. I was thinking about myself."

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"I wanted to find a solution. The issue was small. It was not something I couldn't fight out. It was not such a big injury that I couldn't find a solution. Suppose I can, then good. If I can't, I can always stop badminton," exemplified Saina. She said she would quit the sport if her body yielded to cope with the severities.

"Players like to play. When the body says 'no', then you have to stop. Some players feel they have achieved enough, they stop, but otherwise, you always feel like doing well, and when I feel I will also stop," she said. Asked if there was anything left to accomplish, Saina answered, "Isn't winning good? It is also nice."

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"See, I have no motivation or feeling I can be a coach. I can see that in Guru [RMV Gurusaidutt], [Parupalli] Kashyap and [HS] Prannoy in future. They all have that coaching ability, but I don't even have that. So, I thought, let me play some more years," concluded Saina.

(With inputs from PTI)