Small shuffling in skill can put Saina Nehwal at top of the world, says Prakash Padukone
India’s badminton legend and former All England Open Champion Prakash Padukone said that country’s top shuttler Saina Nehwal needs a little shuffling in her skills to get at top of the world in Women’s Singles category.
The World Number Five Saina, who is the only female Indian shuttler who has won many Super Series titles, has reached into final of Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold 2012 that is in progress at Basel, Switzerland.
Saina is defending champion in Swiss Open and is expected to live up to expectations by winning the Women’s Singles title.
Saina has been struggling hard to get back on the winning track for the last one year as she was suffered with injuries. However, Prakash feels that she needs just small changes to dominate the world.
Prakash, who is also a coach in India, said that while targeting a medal in 2012 Olympic Games Saina needs to work on his training plan and tactical aspect of the play as well to overcome her small deficiencies.
However, Prakash also said that it is quite challenging to maintain your position at the top especially when there is a minute difference among many players in the world.
He said, “It is difficult to survive at the top of the world in badminton, because the difference between the players is so minute. I believe she can return to winning ways with some small changes in her game.”
He further added, “It could be something like tweaking her tactics against the top players, or maybe a little change in her training programme. I can't say where exactly she's going wrong, since we haven't really spoken of late, but I think a back-to-the-basics
approach always works wonders.”
The top shuttler in India, Saina is the only hope for the country to grab a medal in Olympic Games which no other Indian has ever managed.
Saina, who is bidding to defend her title at Swiss Open, defeated Minatsu Mitani in Women’s Singles semi-final in an emphatic fashion.
In the title match, Saina will be up against China’s Wang Shixian who overpowered Inthanon Ratchanok of Thailand in another semi-final contest.
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