India’s Saina Nehwal vows to stand out despite of a tough draw – London Olympics Update
India’s badminton queen Saina Nehwal is one of the frontrunners in race for glory in London Olympics and she is all set to hit the mark despite of having potential hurdles in preliminary rounds.
World Number five shuttler, who holds fourth spot in tournament ranking has been placed in Group E along with Sabrina Jaquet and Lianne Tan of Switzerland and Belgium respectively.
Meanwhile, she will also have to exceed World Number seven Danish Tine Baun and an underrated Dutch player Yao Jie en-route to knock stage of the event.
Though, the top seeded Wang Yihan is also her expected challenger in the semi-finals but still Saina is in high spirits to surpass all these hurdles.
The 22-year-old shuttler admitted that draw is tough but she is positive to pass all the challenging trials by utilising the valuable experience of the past. She also revealed that one match at a time will be her strategy to handle this pressure.
Saina said, "The draw looks quite tough. I`ve played them before and they`ve given me challenges. I`m expecting good matches. But I`m just going to take it one match at a time."
However, the world beaters like Wang Yihan, Wang Xin and Li Xuerui of China will be the biggest hurdles for her but she is not even thinking about them right now and just wants to remain focused to her goal.
Saina stated that an Olympic medal is certainly a symbol of excellence and honour but she does not want to be bogged down by the pressure so she will just try to go all out there.
She said, "That`s (Winning a medal) a dream for every Indian and me. But I don`t want to put too much pressure on myself."
This edition of the Olympics will be her second appearance in the mega event as she also represented India in 2008 Beijing Olympics where she could not proceed after quarter-finals and missed a golden chance of an Olympic medal.
Now, Saina considers herself more experienced and hoped that it will help her to stay calm in the second outing of the mega event.
The Indian ace has alarmed all the opponents after bagging two consecutive titles the Indonesia Open and Thailand Open last month.
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