Saina Nehwal's hunger for success is for all Indian sportspersons to follow: Prakash Padukone

All along only reading about Saina Nehwal in the media as she had her training base in Hyderabad under Pullela Gopichand, legendary badminton player Prakash Padukone only had words of praise for the world No 4 after interacting with her in recent times.

Nehwal had shifted her base to Bangalore in early September to train at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) under former chief national coach U Vimal Kumar. Nehwal has also picked Padukone's brains while also fine-tuning her skills in Bangalore.

Padukone said it was just a matter of “polishing” her game. “Vimal is entirely handling Saina's training. It is just that we are able to give personal attention to her. Gopi has spent a lot of time training her. It is just a question of adjusting a little bit, some tactics and improving the strokes. Otherwise, there is no major change in the training part as such,” Padukone said here on Tuesday on the eve of the TATA Open India International Challenge 2014.

While Padukone has always maintained that the 24-year-old Nehwal is mentally strong, he said that the 2012 London Games bronze medallist has it in her to win more Superseries titles. “It is partly luck, partly to do with the draw,” Padukone said about her missed chances in the World Championships, a tournament in which India's second best woman shuttler PV Sindhu won back-to-back bronze medals in 2013 and 2014.

“In knockout tournaments, anything can happen. On two or three occasions, Saina lost in the quarterfinals. If she had reached one more round, she would have won a medal. You can't take away any credit from her. With whatever determination I have seen in her, I won't be surprised if she wins a medal at the Olympics and the other (Superseries) tournaments that she has not won so far. Of course, she won't be able to win everything. If she takes part in 10 tournaments – right now, she may be winning one or two – she has the potential to win 7 or 8. That is her capability. I would be satisfied if she wins 7 out of 10 Superseries tournaments. Whether that happens, I don't know. She has the potential, though,” said the former World No. 1.

During his playing days, Padukone shifted base to Denmark for better training facilities. It was from Denmark that he participated in tournaments and became the World No. 1 in 1980. He felt that Nehwal did not have to go abroad to improve her game. “Now it is not required. Where will she go? Thirty years ago, it was different. In India, there were no facilities, not just playing wise but even in terms of making travel arrangements, visas, professional managers, etc. It was extremely difficult. There were no sparring partners, no academies,” Padukone said.

Nehwal has invariable bumped into Wang Shixian in the quarterfinals of tournaments in recent times, often going down to the Chinese. Padukone felt that it was only a matter of time before Nehwal would get over this. “Their matches have been close. Saina has to probably make a few tactical changes and get a little fitter and faster. It is all about self confidence and self belief. She keeps saying, 'this time I can beat her'. It is a matter of time. She is capable of beating them (Chinese) consistently.

“She has to consider all tournaments at par and try to win everything. At the same time, she should not put extra pressure in trying to win the Olympics, the All England, etc. When you go to a tournament, you aim to win. You will not be able to win everything because other players (from other countries) are also there. You have to try to analyse where you have gone wrong and need to improve upon it. One should not lose heart. If you keep working hard, results will automatically come. It is all part of learning. Good players will always learn from her mistakes and defeats.”

Padukone added that while Kidambi Srikanth's triumph in China Open last month must give him the confidence, he should also not be satisfied with the win after defeating Lin Dan in the final. “You should not be satisfied with what you have achieved. You don't keep thinking about. What you have done is over. A good win or a bad loss, you should not keep thinking about it. The Lin Dan chapter is over now. If you keep thinking that 'I defeated Lin Dan', your career is over. In the next tournament, you may lose to a lesser-known payer in the first round. Then you should not keep thinking 'I lost in the first round, my game is over'. It is all part of the game. You should try to win as many tournaments as possible. More than winning, try to play to your potential. The results will automatically come. The focus should be more on playing to the potential rather than thinking, 'I have to win', 'I have to win'. When you do that, automatically, results will be good. I hope Srikanth gains confidence from the win against Lin Dan,” Padukone said.

Srikanth, and other Indian shuttlers, should keep on aiming for more. “Keep working hard,” Padukone said. “Keep aiming for more. That way, I appreciate Saina. She has won so many tournaments, yet her commitment and her focus have not changed. After interacting with her, I found that her hunger to win is there. For her, that was not required. She has achieved so much, she can be easily relaxed. But, she is still focussed on winning more. She is a perfect role model for many youngsters. Her hunger for success is for all Indian sportspersons to follow. Whether you achieve it or not is a different matter. Her hunger to try is a huge lesson for all sportspersons in general.”

Padukone also gave his thumbs up to world No. 11 Sindhu's progress. “She is very talented, has great advantage in height. Physically, unlike Indian girls, she is very tall, very strong and quite fast,” he said.

Founder of the PPBA, Padukone, also felt that today's shuttlers played too many tournaments to garner ranking points. “If I were to play today, I would have played a little differently. All these people need to manage their tournaments. I feel they play too many tournaments even if they are not fit, just to maintain their rankings. It is not necessary you have to be everywhere. You need to select tournaments, play in the good ones and win all of them or do well in all of them. The points you get by playing in 15 tournaments, you get them in 10 tournaments if you do well. Right now, there is inconsistency in shuttlers' results because they are not giving enough time (to rest and recover from injuries). They are not planning well,” he said.
The 59-year-old's advice to the players was: “Whatever tournament you play, try to play well to the potential. That will also avoid injuries and you will be fresh. I think there is overemphasis on rankings. I would tell the players to focus more on performance rather than on rankings. Whatever tournaments they play, if they do well, it will automatically reflect on the rankings.”

Padukone has also blamed it on the Badminton Association of India for the dwindling interest in doubles. “It is entirely the responsibility of BAI to ensure that the paired events (men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles) are taken care of. We are not doing that well in these events. I suggested that we should have separate training camps only for doubles. We have a foreign coach who looks after singles and doubles but a majority of the time is spent on singles. My suggestion to BAI and the government is to consider having separate camps only for doubles players so that in the next three to five years, we can improve the standard of the doubles events. To raise the standard of doubles, it has to be a sustained effort, to catch them young and groom them.”

Padukone was pleased that the Chinese domination was not as it used to be and that other countries, particularly India, are catching up. “I think there will always be ups and downs,” the Padma Shri said. “But China still have the best talent in terms of depth. They have not been able to do well in a couple of tournaments compared to the very high standards they have set for themselves. Even if they win three out of five events, they say they they have to win five out of five. It is good for the sport that one country is not dominating so much. More and more countries need to come up and do well in different events. Am glad that India is catching up. We have a lot of talent. We can easily get into the top four in the world, especially in the singles events. You can't say Chinese domination is over. They have such talent base that it is just a matter of time before they bounce back. Nobody should take things for granted and tend to relax. Chinese talent pool is so huge. There might be 10 people among themselves who can beat Lin Dan. This may not be the case with other countries. But India have 7 players in the top 50 in men's singles world rankings.”