A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

Saina needs to push herself some more and we are sure she can

After Indian Badminton’s shining star, Saina Nehwal crashed out in the first round of Asian Badminton Championships, a friend of mine sent me a message, “unfortunate loss for Saina”. I replied that, we should set the bar really high for her and not use words like unfortunate. She just needs to get better.

But at the same time I wondered why she had to take on the defending champion in the first round itself. After all Saina was the seventh seed and should have started out against a lower ranked player. And this rather strange match-up came after the All- England Championships where Saina was beaten in the first round by world no 3 Pi Hongyan. This again begged the same question. Why did the then world no 9 have to play such a high ranked player in the first round itself.

A little Googling later, I think I have the answers.

First, the no of players in a badminton tournament are limited to 32 and there are only 8 players who get seeded. Quite unlike tennis tournaments where there are 128 or 64 players and accordingly 32 or 16 players get seeded. Therefore we are used to seeing even a 16th seeded player in a tennis tournament avoid a higher ranked player for at least 3 rounds.

In the All- England Championships Saina was the 9th ranked player in the world and missed getting seeded by one rank. So while the player ranked just one place above her had a safe passage into the quarter-finals, Saina was as likely to play a top player as was the lowest ranked player in the tournament. The chances of playing a top 4 player were one in six but as it turned out Saina beat the odds. Check out the full draw at the All- England.

At the Asian Badminton Championships, Saina was seeded 7th, although she was ranked 8th in the world, thanks to Asia’s dominance of the sport. As a seeded player she should have played a weak opponent. She did play a lower ranked player but definitely not a weak player. Jiang Yanjiao was the defending champion. She happens to be ranked only 14th in the world for the simple reason that she comes from China. That country has so many top-ranked players that players like Jiang often have to miss tournaments because of the restriction on the number of players that can participate from one country. That means she has fewer chances to play and accumulate ranking points. The chances of Saina meeting Jiang in the first round were slim but again Saina beat the odds. Check out the draw of the Asian Championships.

What we have learnt is that Saina Nehwal managed to get a highly unfavourable draw for two tournaments running. But then again, in a favourable situation, she would have sailed to the quarter finals. To progress further she would have had to beat a top player, something she failed to do, twice.

A quarter –final showing would have made most of us really happy. After all we as a nation are used to accepting mediocrity with open arms. It would have papered the cracks that are there in Saina’s game – because of which she was unable to beat a top-player two matches in row. We expect greatness from Saina. We expect victories over top-players to be routine affairs and not reasons for massive celebrations.

Therefore it’s a good thing that the draw was unfavourable twice, that she lost in the first round both times. It fully exposed her weaknesses. Now, the fighter that she is, Saina will be doubly motivated to get better. She will push herself further and in the process raise her game another notch. And that will be the best thing for her, for Indian badminton and for all us who care for both.