Good point. Saina definitely lost her aggression from first game. Hey, thanks for supporting saina. The good thing is she is still relatively young. Actually, we in India already consider her a great player. (I know Indonesian standards are high. And I have always loved many Indonesian players)
i somehow felt that, that was probably the best chance for saina to win the all England but certainly not the last. i don't understand why some members here thinks she has a uni dimensional game, well i do not at all think so, she can play a fast paced game as well as she has the ability to mix it up when needed. i think it was all mental in that all england final combined with a not so good strategy of all out attack which have worked wonders for saina against carolina before, all those hard smashes consumed a lot of energy from her plus she was more mentally tired than physically i would say whereas carolina marin played with an attitude of go for it all, being the second favourite in that match, plus their last meeting also had a great role in this match.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails Saina Nehwal’s efforts in All England Badminton Chamionships "Well played @NSaina! We are very proud of you. You created history by reaching the finals. Keep up the spirit," Modi wrote on his Twitter page.
i think all england open was just a trailer of what's coming next from saina nehwal, this might be too early to say but i believe this is going to be her year and that defeat will work for the better of her overall game and mental aspect. .barring that final match, i saw this cool and compose saina in every other match of the tournament, there was this feeling of calm and satisfaction on her face and obviously after that tough loss she will look into the match and work on her mistakes to be better and better, physically she is looking more lite and strong as well which is another plus. .what's your take on that?
Definitely she is lighter in weight now than before. She is capable of taking any impossible shots. But the thing is mental aspect of the game. She need to believe herself . Have you seen her match against sun yu. she was trailing in both the games . But once the interval came, her coach vimal kumar came up with a strategy to tackle the tallest opponent on court. She executed it splendidly and the result is 21-13,21-13. But in the case of finals, she used all the energy in the first game and she was left out of energy completely. She could not follow whatever coach had adviced to her. This may happens sometimes. Let's hope for the best. One thing we need to accept. Carolina has been playing with splendid form in recent months. She reached 3 finals consecutively. 2 runner up and one big title .. Really marvellous.
Indeed SN was a spent force in G3 because she overtaxed herself in G1 which she completely overwhelmed CM. What it means is that she has to know how to pace herself and expect to last three difficult games. It also means that she was not as physically prepared as many fans thought she was and will need to do more on her fitness if she wants to excel. I thought her mental preparation was good, but her fitness deserted her in the most crucial decider. On the other hand CM was both physically and mentally better prepared.
I went back to the BWF website to dig out some very simple statistics on Saina's matches that go to three games (as it was me who posed this question). The results shown go back to beginning of 2013. She doesn't do too bad at all. Out of all her 3 game matches, she won 19 and lost 15. If you are her opponent, you have just under 50% chance of winning the final set. For all the experts in statistics, yes, it is a very simple statistic that probably is subject to confounding. I didn't do any further analysis of her winning or losing against which ranking players. The sample size goes down too small.
I sure hope your words come true. I hope All England was just a trailer. But she has to spend quality training time, as well as work on her fitness -physical and psychological. You are right - except for the finals, Saina looked calmer than usual. I don't claim that she was physically very well prepared, but I do think she could not handle the pressure. She needs to be mentally stronger. Her focus should be on the court like a fighter and not on the consequences of losing. Hey, how do you extract such information? Do you do that manually or use some algorithm/query? Well, my observation has been that Saina is more likely to choke against more revered opponents on bigger occasions.
I guess Vimal Kumar and possibly P.Padukone focused more on taller oppoents like Yihan. Marin was not included in the calculations. But now they will now focus more on girls like CM and TTY. BTW, you did not answer me.Who is Jwala's new coach? YOu said that she changed coach.
old fashioned manual counting results are on the bwf site. I wanted to go back further but only the results from 2013 onwards are shown. You would need to define which tournaments you consider as bigger ones and do the manual count from there.
Ah I see. I was wondering if was missing out on any tricks. Well, I will give you an example of smaller tournament - IBL. There wasn't that much pressure and so Saina won all matches. She beat TTY, Baun , Schenk and Sindhu. In fact in 2013 IBL was the only place where she did well.
So close but yet so far. :crying: But the Screaming Spaniard is extremely talented and held her nerve till the middle of Game 2 when she knew Stuttering Saina was spent – hence her sweet smiling face. Why stuttering? Simple, Saina has emptied both her mental and physical gas tank midway in Game 2. The weight and hopes of the nation also affected her somewhat. As in all things, badminton is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration or talent. It would appear that Saina is 99.5% at the moment – i.e. she has probably achieved the maximum 99% perspiration as not many can/have trained as hard as her all these years. The final with Carolina was the playbook on how to beat Saina. Work on your defence and stick it out for a 35-shot average high-pace rally game and you will be rewarded in Game 3. At peak condition, every player’s stamina is limited and Saina is no exception. We have seen her style changed under the new coach – from less aggression but with long rallies to tire out the opponent; to the present aggression interspersed with long 4-corner rallies. This probably explains the higher success rate in 3-setters previously. Unfortunately with limited stamina, talent can only be the key difference as the Spaniard proved it on Sunday.
I thought you meant that Jwala changed her coach. Reading your post again - I think you meant that saina changed her coach.
Jwala hates Gopichand for various reasons ( Mainly gopi thinks she is too old and unfit to carrry on ) but she claims that he favours AP players and since he runs private academy he can not remain the Indian coach and badminton players association head . As an erstwhile badminton player ( District ) I have heard a lot of rumours and every thing inside Badminton India . Some of these are Gopi and jwala destroying Chetan's career , Saina moving out of Gopi's since sindhu ( AP Player ) emergence . None of the other state players being given advantage , Yonex sponsoring of Indian Badminton association but all the money and equipment going to Gopi's academy and him selling those to state associations . So when Saina changed her coach then jwala started to speak in favour of her .
Welcome. It's OK, all is not over. She is still a few days short of 25. She will probably get a few more good shots at important tournaments even if Saina plays say only 4 years more,. For example, Tine Baun only became all world number 1 at age 29 and winning big titles even at 32. What I mean is she plays better when she is not expecting anything. Even here she said she did not expect to be in semis because she was facing WYH. Perhaps that allowed her to play better.
Well, I only looked at the stats to compare and didn't really look too much at head to heads. The system is different in Denmark. Their players chose to specialise in badminton later than other countries. Saina was I think 17-18years old when I first saw her playing internationally. So yes, it's time for her to come through and be winning a few more tournaments. Considering she has a very physical style, she hasn't had too many severe injuries which is good. Whether she will go on to 32 years old...so many factors. Player's motivation is the main thing. Players who have done three Olympics are in the minority. I know Indian culture has an emphasis on marriage - that may come into it. Didn't stop Jwala though. If she carries on another 4 years, is the money earned from sponsorships and commercial deals enough justification? It's a very personal decision.
The source for below is not internet : Apparently after Saina's loss at quater finals Vimal Kumar and Madhumita Bisht were caught on telephone. Vimal Kumar said it was unfortunate and highlighted that the foundations of Saina's defeat was laid on the very first game when Saina lost 5-6 points consecutively at game point. She not only lost momentum, but let Carolina Marin into her mind. And of course CM played well. Madhumita made the same point, also confirming that she prayed for most of the match. She too thought Saina got nervous and kept telling Saina to keep courage - but felt that the pressure of All England finals weighed too much on Saina. ---------------------- Saina gave a nice interview(source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...es-says-Saina-Nehwal/articleshow/46525590.cms) herself: "I played to win but the game slipped away from me," says Saina, adding, "I can only learn from mistakes". You were so close. You just missed making history by a whisker, do you feel upset? I am not upset at all. It's a game... happens. After the Olympics medal, the All England Championship is a big thing. The silver I won is going to get a pride of place among the trophies which Papa keeps them with such care at our Gachibowli home. By reaching the finals of this championship, I already made history. That I didn't win is okay. Not everything is in my hands. It's in God's hand, I would say. My job is to work hard. Were you nervous or excited when you stepped into the centre court for the finals? I felt normal. I told myself that I was playing just another super series finals. And well, this was my 12th super series finals. You have beaten Carolina Marin earlier ... I have beaten her three times before this, so, yes, I was hoping to win. But then, sometimes you also need to be lucky. What do you think was the biggest flaw on your part? That I made errors and the game slipped away from me. And yes, she has improved a lot as a player. Does the loss hurt? This was my first All England finals. And I reached here only because of my coach Vimal sir and my mom because at every step, they have corrected me. And I am the only Indian woman to reach here. I wasn't playing to my potential before the China Open (which I won). My game was so slow before that. But after that win, I am improving. I am going to stay positive and not let the fact that I missed the gold play on my mind. A lot of people had doubts when you walked away from coach Gopichand and started training with Vimal Kumar. You feel you have done the right thing? Nothing much to say about that, but Vimal sir is a great coach with a lot of positive attitude. He supports me a lot and knows which area I should focus on. That's a very good thing, because I don't have to think much about my mistakes, as he takes care of it completely. What has changed as you train with Vimal now? Vimal sir is alert because he knows he is training World No. 3, so he knows that there's a lot of responsibility on him. He knows that I have to improve my game consistently to beat other top players. I needed someone to pay attention to my practice all the time. You train very hard even after playing a gruelling championship. You have even suffered injuries because of this habit. Don't you think you push yourself too hard? Now, I don't stay at home (laughs). On a serious note, I wouldn't want to disclose my training regimen because it's something very personal between my coaches, trainers and me. But I can say that I am not pushing myself hard now like I was doing in Hyderabad. In Bangalore, the training is more focused. Your decision to move out seems to have made a world of good to your game... It's tough you know... very tough to stay at the top for seven years. There's a lot of pressure all the time. But I try and stay positive, if I work hard, the results will come naturally. You celebrate your birthday on 17, would you have loved to gift yourself the gold? (Laughs) I didn't even think about my birthday. As far as my birthday is concerned, I won't even be celebrating it because I will be training for a tournament that starts from the March 23. ------------------------- Nice interview. I like it.
