Not happy with the way I played: Saina Nehwal

After a disappointing show, by her own standards, in the recent South East Asia leg that has been her pet events in the past, Saina Nehwal has said that she will bounce back to winning ways.

After failing to retain her titles at the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold and Indonesia Open Super Series, she had dropped from second to fourth rank last week but moved up one place to third on Thursday.

“I will be third this week. It is very difficult to get points at this level,” Saina told dna a day before the latest rankings were out.

A quarterfinal finish at Singapore Open followed by Thailand’s rising star Ratchanok Intanon’s inability to participate in Indonesia and Singapore pushed the Hyderabadi shuttler to No. 3 as only 462 points separated them before the latest rankings.

Saina said after returning from the three back-to-back tournaments that she was not satisfied with her trip. “I am not happy with the way I played in the three tournaments. I was the defending champion in Thailand and Indonesia. I wanted to win there. I lost a lot of points in these tournaments,” she said.

The 23-year-old said that she needed to improve on certain areas to be ready for the World Championships in Guangzhou, China, from August 5-11. “I was a little slow in these tournaments. I will improve on these areas in coming weeks and will do better in the Worlds,” she said.

What is worrying about the London Games bronze medallist is that she is losing to players who are ranked below her. Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri in Singapore Open, Singapore’s Juan Gu in Thailand Grand Prix Gold and Japan’s Yui Hashimoto of Japan in India Open in April. In Indonesia Open, Saina erred a lot while going down to German Juliane Schenk, against whom the Indian had an 8-3 advantage before that quarterfinal tie.

Saina defended by saying this pattern was not really worrisome. “Fanetri is fast emerging as a better player and is ranked 11th in the world. I beat her the week earlier (in Indonesia first round). She was better prepared for the revenge and overpowered me,” she said. She added she was not under pressure in sight of a maiden title this year. Her last triumph came in Denmark Open in October 2012.

“I will practice hard and will be back to winning ways,” she said confidently.

The ensuing six weeks will give Saina enough time to smoothen some rough edges in her game and also recover completely from any niggling injuries. She has just come out of a knee injury that has bothered her for more than a year and a toe fracture, which forced her to withdraw from the Sudirman Cup, and played in these tournaments.

Saina said injuries did affect her form. “I was injured in April (toe) because of which there was some slackness my game. I’ve recovered and have to get my rhythm again. After completely recovering, I am sure I will put up a good show against not just lower-ranked players but also those above me,” she said.