Published>Mon, Jun 21 10 08:47 PM
New Delhi, June 21 (IANS) Saina Nehwal will be a strong favourite to win three back-to-back titles when she begins her defence of the Indonesia Open Super Series badminton tournament at Jakarta Tuesday.
World No.6 Saina is the top seed in the tournament, as she was at Singapore Open which gave the Indian her second Super series title Sunday, with none of the top five Chinese players competing and that should make Saina's job easy.
Third seed Zhou Mi of Hong Kong, ranked ninth in the world is the only top-10 player apart from Saina in the draw. Zhou, 30, a former world number one from China, is not a potent force in the international circuit anymore.
Going by her current form, Saina would fancy her chances this week also.
'The way she has been playing she should win the tournament. The only thing is that it is quite tiring to play at three back-to-back tournaments at such level. But she is in great form and if she plays to her potential like in the past two weeks, nobody can stop her from winning a third title,' national coach Pullela Gopichand told IANS.
Saina's Singapore Open triumph Sunday came in the wake of her Indian Open Grand Prix title a week before.
She could have very well won another title this year but faltered at the Badminton Asia Championships in April here, stunned by qualifier Xuerui Li in the semifinals.
Saina, however, made sure that she does not fall to Xuerui the second time and avenged her defeat at Singapore in the quarterfinals. She then beat current world champion Lu Lan in the semifinals, her biggest win against a Chinese in recent times, and that should give her the confidence to defend the Indonesian Open title.
After her breakthrough win at Indonesia last year, Saina fell prey to the Chinese and titles suddenly dried up. She made a conscious decision to play only in top tournaments and working rigorously on her game and fitness.
Gopichand says that the training regime has worked for Saina and the improvement is showing.
'It is not that she was not playing well. She was making it to the quarter-finals quite consistently. At the top level, the game has to be very tight. She was not far away from winning titles. It is a matter of one match which can lift the confidence of the player,' says the former All England Champion.
Asked whether now she will be under pressure to win more titles, Gopichand says: 'She will win more titles but we should not put more pressure on Saina because she expects a lot from herself.'
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