Saina Nehwal | A year in waiting

Outside the Radisson Blu HC Andersen Hotel in Odense where Saina Nehwal stayed last year during the Yonex Denmark Open badminton event, is a life-size metal sculpture of Hans Christian Andersen. The legendary writer of fairy tales sits comfortably on a bench, so that one can sit alongside and appear to have a conversation with him, for a photo keepsake. A stone’s throw away is the house he grew up in, now converted to a museum.During the course of that magical fortnight in Odense, Nehwal might have felt she, like Andersen, was creating her own fairy tale. No Indian had won the title since Prakash Padukone in 1980. The Olympic bronze had changed everything for Nehwal—she appeared cocooned in confidence, almost indifferent to the temporary fluctuations in each match. She was fast and strong, throwing herself into every point. She was also remarkably calm in the heat of battle, smiling occasionally at her own errors. It was a different Nehwal than the one who would remonstrate at herself at every missed opportunity. She was in the zone all through
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