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'It will do wonders' |
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By: Ashwin Ferro |
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Date:
2008-08-13 |
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Place: Beijing |
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Hopeful: Saina Nehwal | Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary VK Verma believes Saina Nehwal's dream run at the Beijing Olympics, where she upset Hong Kong's World No 5 Chen Wang on Monday to become the first Indian shuttler ever to reach the quarter-finals, will do wonders to the dwindling image of the sport in the country.
A poor turn-out during the recently concluded inaugural Tata Open badminton tournament at the Bombay Gymkhana is proof of the fact that there aren't too many badminton lovers around. The crowd did turn up on the final day but there was a star-attraction too in the form of Bollywood starlet Deepika Padukone, daughter of former all-England winner Prakash, whose academy conducted the tournament.
Inspiration
Verma is well aware of the current scenario. "I know that badminton is not one of India's priority sports. That's why an effort like this (from Saina) can serve as an inspiration for youngsters to take up the sport. Saina has done remarkably well and the best part is that being only 18. She has age on her side," Verma told MiD DAY at the Beijing University of Technology here yesterday.
Saina's feat though came as no surprise to Verma, who has been keeping an eye on the young Hyderabadi for sometime now. "To be honest, I had expected her to do well. She has put in hard work and sincerity into her practice sessions along with coach Pullela Gopichand," said Verma who was recently appointed Director General of the XIX Commonewealth Games to be held in New Delhi from October 3-14 2010.
He now wants Saina to go ahead and do the imaginable today by making it to the last four of the Olympics women's singles event. For this, the World No 15 has to get past a lower ranked World No 21 Kristin Maria Yulianti of Indonesia. Saina however won't be taking her opponent lightly. "She has come this far so she must be in good form. I'm taking one match at a time, so let's see how this one goes," she said. |
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