Beyond the glamour of the five-star receptions, state honours and television interviews, Saina Nehwal braces. It’s early yet, just 8am on a bitterly cold morning in Birmingham, and she will have to wait until evening to take on her opponent for a place in the All England semifinal.
No Indian has been there since 2001, when her coach Pullela Gopichand pulled off a stirring victory. She’s been in Super Series quarterfinals before, and although she won’t admit it, this is big. This is the 100th year of the All England. All the top players talk of how special this one is.
A lot of the game is in the waiting. The match will probably take an hour-and-a-half at most; the rest of the time is spent in preparing and not allowing the mind to get too far ahead. It’s about doing the small things right.
Right now, Saina’s headed back to the hotel from her practice session at the NIA, which is built next to a picturesque waterway. A few geese are playing around in the water and Saina stops to watch. She will head to the team hotel, have her breakfast, sleep for an hour and a half, have lunch, watch a movie for an hour; head to yet another practice session at 2pm, and return to the hotel for rest, before she finally makes her way to the stadium an hour before the match.
“Earlier, it was a problem if I had a whole day left for the match,” she says. “But now, I’m fine with whatever time it is. When I enter the court again in the evening, I can’t be just 30 per cent prepared, and leave the rest to whatever’s going to happen. I have to be prepared for everything. It’s important to ensure that because it’s so cold here, I’m properly warmed up. Also, I’ve played these girls before, and you need to read their game again and again.”
When a match is due, all top players go into a shell. Any small detail left unattended can hurt them. The mind has to be finely balanced; it cannot be too excited or too lethargic; it cannot be allowed to wander around, nor can it dwell on a particular thing all day, for then mental fatigue will set in. “Everything should be on time,” Saina says.
“If I’m resting, I’ll sleep for 1-1/2 hrs. I’ll have lunch three hours before the match, and a banana just before.”
She will be playing Julianne Schenk. The German policewoman is a physically tough specimen; she is fast and powerful, and has beaten Saina a couple of times. Schenk will be in a similar state of readiness. She has had a busy fortnight, having come to the All England from the German Open, but after her second round she promised she’d give it everything in the quarters. It might be a long match.
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