Saina Nehwal : Olympics is the toughest tournament

Rio will be Saina’s third Olympics, and having won the bronze in the last edition, the 26-year-old knows that the expectations around her will be bigger this time. But, the Australian Open champion believes that one needs to look at it as Rio Super Series instead of the Olympics.

“I became World No. 1 [during this period],” she said. “I won the World Championship silver medal. I beat a couple of top players whom I had never defeated before. Like Wang Yihan, Carolina , Ratchanok . There is one girl who is still a mystery for me — Tai Tzu Ying. I hope I solve that puzzle as well. She is a very technical player and one of the strong contenders,” the 26-year-old said.

One needs to just forget [the word] Olympics. Take it as Rio Super Series. But it is the toughest tournament.

“The win was about how I came back from the injury. I never thought about Olympics, rankings or anything. It was about how I could win against players who have been troubling me. I wanted to get that confidence and the winning momentum which I had lost in November in the final of the China Open. Because of the injury, I could not come back strongly. Now I am happy to have got that break,” she explained, reported the Hindu.

The 26-year-old also expressed her happiness about India sending its biggest-ever badminton contingent to Rio and said that everyone has a chance to win a medal. Apart from Saina, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy are the other Indian shuttlers qualified for the Rio Olympics.

“I am really happy that we are seven this time. It has improved so much from last time. All of us have been performing well for the last two or three years. I am sure we have a lot of chances.”