The Year 2008 has been a big revelation for the Indian sports. Coming out of the shadows, a few spirited young men and women proved that the
Indians can be world beaters beyond doubt.

Its not just, the now famous Gold Finger of shooter Abhinav Bhindra which fetched India the coveted yellow medal at the biggest stage of all, Beijing Olympics, in many other sports the Indians proved they can be true world champions in their own way.

One such member of this young brigade is Hyderabad’s own Saina Nehwal. This young shuttle ace has been in a sensational form in recent times, raising eyebrows of many sports pundits. At just 18, she is already a big star in a truly world game badminton. And, particularly in the later part of the year 2008 Saina has proved to be a quiet exceptional player with some stunning achievements.
After her remarkable run in the Beijing Olympic Games where she narrowly missed a quarterfinal berth added to her superb show in the Kuala Lumpur World Masters Super Series Badminton Championships, where only the worlds elite shuttlers vie for top honours, she made it to
the last four stage.

An inspiring show in these two big events, coupled with a few other big achievements, propelled her to top ten rankings in the world
badminton. At present, Saina is ranked World No 10.

By the end of the year 2008, she was at the verge breaking into the top five ranking in the world. Saina will be competing in two major
tournaments in January 2009, at Malaysia and Korea Super Series tournaments respectively

and a quarterfinal appearance in both these
events should help her reach the coveted top five ranking in the world.

With the Chinese deciding to boycott the two Super Series events, they stand to lose a lot of points while Saina, who suffered a first round
loss in Malaysia tournament last year and didn’t play in the Korean tournament, has no points to defend. And, the luck is smiling on Saina
as well as the Hyderabadi has also got a good draw in both the tournaments, which will definitely would boost her confidence level.

At the Kuala Lumpur tournament, Saina, seeded fifth, opens against a little known German Nicole Grether and should hardly have any problem in reaching the quarterfinals stage. The world’s top junior could even progress further as she is drawn to face seventh-ranked Frenchwoman Pi Hongyan in the last eight stage.
Seeded fifth in Seoul too, Saina is likely to meet a big gun - Danish world No.2 Tine Rasmussen - only in the quarterfinals. Saina has 48791
points while fifth-ranked Xie Xingfang of China has 57500 points. A quarterfinal appearance in a Super Series event fetches 5040 points
(semis: 6420) which means two last eight finishes should see the Indian join the elites.

At the Kuala Lumpur World Super Series Masters Championships, Saina made a biggest splash of her remarkable career yet by marching into
the semifinals with two stunning quarterfinal league match wins in just one day.

Ranked world No. 10, Saina beat sixth-seed and world No. 11 Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia 21-10, 17-21, 21-16 in the third match of the
tournament and became the first Indian women to reach the coveted stage in the elite tournament. “It was a very good match. I am very satisfied and happy with my performance. To be honest I didn’t expect to win two matches on a single day. Both were very tough and I am happy that I made it to the semi-finals,” she said then.

Speaking about her gruelling encounter with Wong, the Hyderabad girl, who came close to missing the tournament following a goof-up at the regional passport office, said it was her strong smashes which came good in the end.

“It was a long match. I rallied well and my smashes were coming really good. I took the lead in the first game. In the second, she was on the better side and there was a drift. So I was not able to counter going out a bit,” Saina said.

“I was not at all scared today. I knew I had nothing to lose so I just gave my 100 per cent. I knew I can do it. I just kept my cool and didn’t let tension get the better off me because whenever I become tense, I give away points,” she said.

However, Sainas big run finally came to an end

as she went down fighting to Chen Wang of Hong Kong in the semi-finals the following day.

Sainas coach and former all-England champion himself, Pullela Gopichand expressed happiness about Sainas latest achievement and said Saina’s progress should augur well for Indian badminton.

“It’s a great victory. I am very happy with her performance. It will surely do a whole lot of good to Indian badminton. Finally, India has
come at the world stage,” said the former all-England champion.

Saina’s Milestones:
Saina won the 2006 Phillipines Open to become first Indian woman to win a four-star badminton event. Entering the tournament as the 86th seed, Saina went on to beat several top seeded players including number seed Huaiwen XU before defeating Julia Xian Pei Wong of Malaysia for the title.

Saina also finished as runner-up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships.

In June 2008, Saina made it to the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold and reached the semi-final stage at the Singapore Super Series 2008.

She was a silver medallist at the last edition in Incheon, South Korea in 2006.

Saina became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter-finals at the preseigious Beijing Olympic Games when she upset the world No 5 five and fourth seeded Hong Kong player Wang Chen.

Saina also won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Grand Prix in September, which is her second GP.

At the Commonwealth Youth Games, Saina outperformed her rivals to emerge winner in the tournament.
•v•v•