Without a new gameplan, Saina is doomed

Just before leaving for the All England championship, Saina Nehwal admitted in an interview that her decision to part ways with mentor Pullela Gopi Chand last year was a big mistake and she herself went up to the chief national coach to apologise and started training under him again. The rift lasted for just a few months and hardly hurt Saina in terms of her international rankings, as she never went out of the top six spots throughout the year. However, Saina was aware that something was missing and the inconsistent form was not just a result of injuries that she suffered during the campaign. In fact, Saina must be wondering at the precarious situation she finds herself after every major tournament this year. The world number four, who will turn 22 in a couple of days, hasn’t lost to anyone but the mighty Chinese in her 12 international matches this year and still there is a cause for worry ahead of the London Olympic Games among her coaches and to some extend in her own mind. While no body expects Saina or any other shuttler in the world to consistently overpower the mighty Chinese contingent — they have a never-ending supply line of shuttlers and it is extremely difficult for anyone to match their consistency levels — the Indian had managed to create a fear psychosis among the badminton powerhouse. [caption id=“attachment_245330” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Reuters”]  [/caption] In 2010 — when she won three Super Series titles — or even 2011 that saw freak injuries affected her season, the anxiety of playing the Indian ace was always visible in the body language of her Chinese opponents. Something that was missing when world number five Li Xuerui got the better of Saina in a quarterfinal encounter that threatened to go the distance but was wrapped up in straight games. And Saina was the first to admit after the match that she was unhappy with her performance and needed to raise the bar. May be instead, she could look at going around the hurdle rather than jumping over it. Simply put, implement a different game plan to surprise her opponents at times. One of the regular criticism of Saina’s game by international coaches has been that the Indian ace, who relies on wearing down opponents with long rallies and net domination, does not have a good Plan ‘B’ that she can bank upon when the opposition comfortably negotiates her grinding down strategy. That limitation was visible even during the All England quarterfinal when Xuerui showed the confidence to play high-risk shots to negate the AC drift and finish off rallies when she was under pressure. During that match, Gopi Chand was regularly heard telling his ward to show more patience. But for that, Saina needs to get her confidence back. And that would only happen if the Indian ace is more comfortable alternating her game plan according to the need of the situation. And the one question on everybody’s mind is when will that happen. Any top player would tell you that to stay on the top, one has to constantly evolve and somewhere that process was stunted in 2011 after the Indian was earmarked by most of her opponents as the player to beat. The rift with her mentor Gopi Chand did not help the cause as Saina struggled with her training and more importantly tournament planning. Both Saina and Gopi Chand have admitted that they need to find a solution fast and the chief national coach has been insisting on the need to work on alternate strategy. “We need a few weeks of training without thinking about the next tournament. I guess we may have to wait till the Olympic qualifying year is over,” he had told reporters recently. There are about 12-13 weeks between the end of the qualification period, which ends of April 31, 2012, and the London Olympics. But will Saina be confident enough of that alternate strategy to employ it at the biggest stage ever. Only time will tell.