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Expat in Germany

Sunday, March 29, 2015

A Dream Come True!

Nothing to cheer about for three months. As a continuation to the loss of Viswanathan Anand to Carlsen, Nadal lost pretty badly to weak opponents at Qatar, Melbourne, Rio and Indian Wells. Alonso crashed at Barcelona, the Indian cricket team lost in the semi finals and Saina Nehwal fell at the last stage at the All England club. But wait, after 88 days of 2015, I, we have got a news to cheer about, one of the sweetest news for me in the last 5-6 years. SAINA NEHWAL's name would be on the top of the Badminton World Federation women's singles rankings which would be released next week.

It might have been a dream come true for Saina. But for me, it is still a dream. In 2010, I promised my friends a party if Saina ever became world number one. She came close back then, she rewrote history by becoming number 2. I hoped she would reach the top spot the itself, but she took her time. It is now 2015. Five years after she came second for the first time. Five years!! No body can continue this streak of form for five years. Not even in cricket! Not even in Integrated Masters programme. Not at all in India. But I knew she would do it one day. Like the PSLV-27!!


When Saina became the first Indian woman to reach quarter finals at Beijing olympics, that was when I first took her notice but then her feat was over shadowed by a gold in shooting for the first time. She soon followed it up with a win at the Indonesia Open, stunning many a people. I started following her. With a lot of victories in 2010, I became her fan and promised a nice treat if she came first. She would, eventually. So thought her coaches, be it Arif or Gopichand or Vimal, so thought her parents and so thought her fans, and I am among those. If doing something out of the box, stunning the world and creating history is one part, winning consistently, maintaining fitness with growing age is tougher. Probably this is why she had to part ways with her mentor Pullela Gopichand. She is a gem. She definitely deserves a bigger Padma award.

Criticism comes. The biggest one was, when she said that she knew she would win the Olympic Bronze at London, many criticised her because the opponent gave her a bye. She flew over to Copenhagen and won the Denmark super series. Cool way to shut mouths. When people criticised her for bad play in the all England club finals recently, here she is, at Delhi, into the finals again. Saina has conquered China long ago. She had also built a "Sainese" wall last year when she won the China open.
All Saina has left to conquer are the ever increasing expectations and her physical body. There is still a lot to win for Saina. All she has to remember is that, win or loss we are behind her. If her eyes are on the Olympic Gold, go for it!
Kudos to a great deserving player!!  

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