Road to recovery and Rio: Saina Nehwal sets her eyes on winning All England Championships

Birmingham: All eyes will be on Indian ace Saina Nehwal when she returns to the court after an injury lay-off at the All England Championship, hoping to better last year’s runner-up finish at the prestigious event which begins with the qualifiers on Tuesday. In pursuit of achieving her full fitness ahead of a hectic Olympic year, Saina skipped a series of tournaments, including the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, but the World No. 2 Indian will now be back in the reckoning as she spearheads the challenge here. “Unfortunately I could not play any tournament this year because of a nagging ankle injury and a recurrent viral infection. But now I am perfectly all right and my fitness level is also good. I had a good training session and I would give my best in this event,” said Nehwal, who would take on Commonwealth Games champion Michelle Li of Canada in the main draw on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_2649472” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Saina Nehwal. AFP[/caption] Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, India’s P V Sindhu too will hope to turn around her dwindling form when she takes on Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in her tournament opener. Among the India men shuttlers in fray, World No. 10 Kidambi Srikanth will face Commonwealth Games silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph in his opening round. H S Prannoy, who has slipped to World No. 26, will look for a good outing to boost his rankings when he takes on China’s Xue Song in his first-round match. Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who had fought a series of injuries since last year to keep his hopes of qualifying for the Olympics alive, received a severe blow last week when he injured his knee at German Open and he will be forced to skip the All England. World No. 21 Ajay Jayaram, meanwhile, will count his chances to qualify for the Rio Games but the Mumbai-born shuttler will have to put up a good show to get inside the top 16 by the May deadline. He will take on Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus in the first round. In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face the formidable Malaysian duo of Kien Keat Koo and Boon Heong Tan in the opening round. 2010 Commonwealth Games champions Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will meet Dutch combo of Samantha Barning and Iris Tabeling in the women’s doubles event. Saina, who last played in the BWF Super Series Finals at Dubai and a couple of matches in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) for Awadhe Warriors, missed the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold at Lucknow in January, South Asian Games in Shillong and Badminton Asia team championship last month. “After All England, I want to play the Swiss Open, India Super Seies in New Delhi later this month and Malaysia Super Series Premier in April,” she said. The 25-year-old, who won the Syed Modi International and India Super Series and finished runners-up at the All England, World Championship and China Super Series Premier and also reached the World No. 1 last year, will make a comeback in the Birmingham event which interestingly starts on the International Women’s day. “All England is starting on the international women’s day and I wish all the women of this world a Happy women’s day,” said Nehwal, who would be one of the 24 sportspersons from across the globe to contest for the four seats of International Olympic Committee’s Athletics Commission in August. PTI