Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal, who edged past Spain’s Carolina Marin at Denmark Open on Wednesday, feels it’s essential for her to play and beat tough players to enter the top-10 in WBF Rankings again.
“I have to play tough players early because I am ranked 12 now. A lot of players who are ranked below me are getting good draws and before the match I was thinking ‘Oh my God’ I am getting such tough draws. But I know I have to beat tough players to come back to top-10 again,” Saina said.
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The London Olympics bronze medallist defeated Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion Marin by 22-20, 21-18 in 46 minutes.
With this, the 27-year-old shuttler took a 5-4 lead in head-to-head record against the Spaniard.
Saina didn’t shy to acknowledge the improvement she has seen in competitors in recent past, adding that she still has long way to go.
“Looking at the way (Nozomi) Okuhara has improved, Carolina and Sindhu’s improvement, the way they were playing big rallies, I am just happy to have come a little close but I have a lot of improvement to be done,” Saina added.
In the World Championship earlier this year, Saina had settled for a bronze after losing in the semifinals to Nozomi Okuhara. Before this, the Indian had beaten her six times in the past.
Saina doesn’t seem much disheartened with the loss, though she said losing to Okuhara “pinched’ her as she wanted to win the title.
“Any kind of victory feels good but I also wanted to win the tournament because I have beaten Okuhara so many times. So it pinched me but the way she was playing in the World Championship, the kind of retrievals she came up with was amazing,” the 2015 World Championship silver medallist added.
(With inputs from agencies)
