London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal trounced teenage shuttler and World Badminton Championships bronze medalist PV Sindhu by 21-19, 21-8 in a totally one-sided contest in the Indian Badminton League at Delhi on Thursday.
No doubt, there was remarkable media buzz around this match and Saina was considered to be the 'outsider'. 'Favorite' Sindhu however, disheartened.
Saina admitted in a post match session that there was huge pressure on her but most of it emerged from the media. She expressed with tongue-in-cheek that she thinks that the media made her lose the match even before it started.
In fact, Sindhu lost the first game after taking a 7-3 lead with Saina who came back with a display of potent smashes and intelligent courtplay. However, Saina paid tribute to Sindhu by commenting that the way Sindhu plays, she is sure she has a bright future ahead.
Saina is aware of the fact that the competition only gets tougher from there and is looking forward at the tournaments ahead. She highlighted that IBL is tight schedule wise and next year it will be tighter with Commonwealth Games and Asiad too. She added that Indian badminton is on a high; hence it is a good thing. In addition, she was thankful to Taufiq Hidayat who calmed her nerves following Sindhu's initial assault had pegged her back on the defensive. She revealed that at the middle of the 1st game when she was trailing, Taufiq requested her to calm down. He explained her how he was under similar pressure when he was playing in Indonesia.
