Saina Nehwal's victorious comeback!

Saina gave the victorious comeback after winning bronze at recently concluded Total BWF World Championship 2017. She is very disappointed as she didn’t do best. She lost against Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-finals winning bronze.

Saina after the draw, played pre-quarters against No 2 seed Sung Ji Hyun to qualify for quarters where in she eliminated Kirsty Gilmour. In semis, she lost to 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Nozomi Okuhara by 21-12, 17-21, 10-21 in 74 minutes. Despite losing the semis, Saina is very pleased with her bronze.

Since past few years, Saina has been through a whole lot trials and tribulations. Ten super series titles, including Malaysia Masters and India Open in 2015 title goes into her winning list. She finished as runner-up in Jakarta for her first ever medal at the World Championships later in 2015.

Then comes the dark side in her way. She has been into lot of injuries, which made her to skip a lot of tournaments and eventually resulting the drop of her world rankings. That is the low period which Saina didn’t expect.

Saina Nehwal had to rush straight to hospital from Rio Olympics for a knee surgery. It really was a painful one and she didn’t know if she could come back. She said that if she was aware of the pain in prior, she wouldn’t have gone to the Rio Olympics. And, today she stood at the podium with the bronze at World Championships. That is really the victorious comeback.

"Only I know what I went through. I shouldn't have gone to Rio, I didn't know I had a major injury. The belief of my parents and coach helped me get back (to this stage in Glasgow). I still have tendonitis in the (right) knee,” said regretted Saina.

“Only I know how much it hurts. I often cry but I am willing to go through that if I can win and play my best,” she added.

The possibility of watching all-India finals was halted by Nozomi Okuhara by defeating Saina Nehwal in the semi-finals repeating the reverse scene of semis at Rio Olympics 2016; Okuhara was defeated by Sindhu last year. She avenged it.

Image: Saina Nehwal with Bronze Medal along with Gold, Silver and other Bronze Medallist

Talking about the difference between the games at, Saina said, “The big difference was that she started picking more difficult shots and play longer rallies. I tried my best to keep up with the rallies and increase my pace, but she was very good today. In the third game she was everywhere and I was confused. She picked up those close drops and went ahead with half smashes and smashes. Actually she was pretty good today.”

Both the players played late night match and allowed to relax for 15 hours. Saina said, “Yes, playing late matches and getting little time to recover does take a toll. But Okuhara also played late yesterday. I was surprised at the schedule. I thought we might get a different scheduling, but we got to play in the morning.”

This year I played just 8-9 tournaments. I was away for a long time because of the knee injury. As I am coming back I am happy with my condition and next year itself will be very tough with Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.”

“But for now, it will be back to the training courts, Super Series events and then 2018,” she concluded.