Saina Nehwal needs to crack left-handed puzzle before Rio 2016

Saina Nehwal failed to beat Carolina Marin but won India’s first ever silver medal at World Championship. (Source: Reuters)

Saina Nehwal lost the gold medal in the face-off for the World Championship at Jakarta on Sunday. Spaniard Carolina Marin, top-ranked in the world, was a superior opponent on the day, and has been for a while for the World No 2 Indian, who lost 21-16, 21-19 in a clash that lasted 59 minutes, over just 77 points of the match.

Nehwal became the first Indian to score a silver at the World Championships, an achievement that is in line with the trend in Indian badminton where the 25-year-old holds many firsts and is considered a trail-blazer.

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But as top-level internationals go, it will be considered a setback, an important loss, and an opportunity lost to win the World crown when pitted against an opponent who out-paced, out-gunned and out-thought the Indian challenger.

Finding silver linings to the silver medal won’t be difficult, but the finals can be an acknowledgment of the fact that Carolina Marin is now the woman to beat, the gold standard of competition in women’s singles, and Saina Nehwal will have to put her down to crack this fast jumbling left-handed puzzle if she has to aim for the podium at Rio in a year’s time.