Jakarta: A jubilant Saina Nehwal on Sunday termed her Indonesian Open triumph "memorable", saying it has given her the confidence to perform consistently in top international tournaments.
World No 3 Saina won the Indonesian Open badminton on Sunday, overcoming stubborn resistance from Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in the final. It was the 20-year-old Saina's third Super Series crown.
She won the Indian Open Grand Prix and the Singapore Open Super Series in the last two weeks, catapulting her to two places in the rankings this week and put her ahead of the three top Chinese players.
It was also Saina's second triumph at the Indonesian Open, which from next year will be one of the five premier events in the international badminton calendar. "It's a memorable victory and a very special moment for me. My confidence level has gone up. I can never forget that in three weeks I have won 15 matches in a row and every day has been enjoying," she said.
Asked about Sunday's title clash with Sato, Saina said it was a tough encounter. "It was quite close. She gave me a tough fight. She has hard smashes and good drives. I could not defend, she was attacking in the second game. In the third game I caught her at the net where she was a bit weak, that was my advantage.
Saina said she was not worried about the ranking and her focus is to do well in important upcoming events this year.
"I am not much worried about my ranking. There are important events like the World Championship, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and I want to perform well in these events. So I am not looking at rankings but I am very happy that I am world number three now.
"For me, it is more important to win tournaments and for that I have to work harder."
Bollywood praise
Bollywood stars tweeted praise as Saina Nehwal completed a stupendous hat-trick of badminton titles and made the world take notice of her. Jubiliant at Saina's exploits at the Indonesian Open Super Series, the Bollywood brigade took to microblogging site Twitter to shower praise on the 20-year-old sports sensation. Anupam Kher congratulated Saina by writing: "Saina is the most focused sports person in the country today. And it shows. Hope the advertising world doesn't take over her life and game." His son Sikander cheered Saina by writing: "GO SAINA !!!"
Abhishek Bachchan also congratulated the world No 3 by writing: "Sain" congratulation!! Way to go girl."
An elated Riteish Deshmukh wrote: "SAINA — truly a remarkable feat- congratulations."
Rahul Bose said: "Fantastic for Saina. If you read about her you get to know the massive hard work and sacrifice she and her family have put in."
