Indian star shuttler Saina Nehwal has overcome the German challenge thrown by Juliane Schenk to clinch Denmark Open Super Series at Odense on Sunday. Currently ranked World No. 4 and third seed in the tournament, Nehwal was considered to be one of the top contenders of the coveted title. She cruised towards victory without any major hiccups as the German got tamed rather easily with an emphatic straight sets win of 21-17 21-8. Nehwal now is much ahead of her German counterpart leading 6-3. Fans back home are jubilant that the Indian badminton ace didn’t let them down.
It was a spirited performance from the Hyderabad girl as it was the fourth major title for the year 2012. During this year itself, she pursued her biggest dream and that of winning an Olympic medal for her country. However, she had to be content with a bronze because she was unable to surpass the Chinese hurdle. One of the interesting facts regarding the stats is that there was no looking back for once she passed the semi-finals stage of any tournament. Having a scintillating record of not losing in at least one final in 2012 is something that speaks of her strong determination and playing skills.
Everything started going in Saina’s way ever since she first won Swiss Open in the month of March. She must have had hardly known then that future has got more in store for the Indian ace badminton player. The Hyderabad girl went onto script history by winning back-to-back titles in the form of Thai Open and Indonesia Super Series. After winning Denmark Open, she pocketed $30,000 prize money. The biggest highlight of the series was to beat World No 1 Yihan Wang in the crucial semifinal tie on Saturday. It was a sweet revenge for Saina as it was Wang who defeated her in the Olympics. Also, this is the first time that she won playing against Chinese player in their past seven encounters.
It was the first major title that Saina has participated and won after her commendable performance during the Olympics. Also, she has now given a fitting reply to her critics with her memorable win who came back at her harshly that she was just spending time in attending functions, promotional events and felicitations all over the country instead of concentrating on her game to a further extent. During the post match conference, Saina has offered thanks to fans in Denmark and her Indian fans as well for showing tremendous support.
She even revealed that it was her right knee that bothered a lot. In fact, Ms. Nehwal was not even expecting to the win tournament as there was a long gap after the Olympics. However, she is thankful to her coach Gopichand who let her prepare perfectly and on time. According to her, every tournament is a tough one and she is thankful to God for blessing with all the energy required to win titles. Though there was persistent knee injury after the London Games, it was her coach Gopichand’s training regime that did her in.
