Saina Nehwal hopes to gain prime form by January end

Satisfied with her performance after coming back from an injury, shuttler Saina Nehwal’s focus would be on her fitness ahead of the new season as she hoped to be back to her best by end of next month.

Saina reached the quarterfinals in Macau Open and Hong Kong Open after recovering from a knee injury which had ended her Olympic dream at Rio Games.

“I had undergone surgery three months back and in fitness there is no miracle. So it will take a bit of time. But I am happy that I could reach the quarterfinals in two tournaments after coming back from rehab and just playing for two weeks on court. So I am happy with the results. I hope by January end I will be in best shape, so lets hope for the best,” Saina told reporters.

“I will decide my tournaments according to my fitness level. There are no major tournaments now so I will only be looking after just my fitness level and I know results will be good. I will be playing PBL,” she added on the sidelines of the prize distribution ceremony of Usha 100^th All India Ladies golf.

Saina endured a difficult season this year as she recovered from a foot injury to win the Australian Open but suffered a major knee injury at Rio Games to bow out in the second round.

Talking about the season, Saina said, “It was a good year, but bad also. I had won the Australian Open and then I had to go for surgery. But this is something which happens to sports-persons. What happened was not in my hand. It is in the past. I learnt a lot of things fro that, where I have to get stronger and I am feeling confident about.”

P V Sindhu had a fantastic season where she won the silver medal at Rio Games, clinched the China Open and reached the Hong Kong final and semifinals of Dubai Super Series Finals.

Asked about PV Sindhu’s rampaging run at international badminton, Saina said: “I think Indian badminton all over is doing well. I think along with Sindhu, Sameer also reached the finals at Hong Kong Open and all of them are doing extremely well.”

A new scoring system of 11-point will be employed at the Premier badminton League starting next month. Asked about it, Saina said: “It is a new experiment and till I play I can’t comment on it. 11-point system will be very quick as points are less. It will be interesting to see how it goes.”

In an interview, Saina had said “I think somewhere deep in my heart that maybe it is the end of my career.”

When asked about it, Saina retorted: “Now what to do? Now I have to play a lot more.”

Asked about golf, Saina said: “It is lot different from the sport I play and lot of girls are doing well in this sport even though it is not as popular sport as cricket. I am very happy about it.”