Game and Skill in Focus as Fit-Again Saina Nehwal Targets World Championship

India's badminton queen Saina Nehwal is focusing on her "game and skill" for the upcoming tournaments, including the World championship, but said the results will depend on overall fitness.

"My performance must be the best as per my analysis. Further it depends upon the overall body health of mine," Saina said. (Saina Nehwal Says Indian Women Not Encouraged to Indulge in Sports)

The World No. 2 Indian said she is preparing hard under the roving eyes of coach Vimal Kumar for upcoming tournaments, including the World Championship.

"As a badminton player of India, I play almost all the tournaments slated for the year 2015-16. For example, World Cup, Japan Open, China Open, Denmark Open, France and Hong Kong open by the end of 2015," she said.

Saina has been in the city for over three weeks training under the vigilant eyes of Kumar at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy. (Badminton Coach Vimal Kumar Feels Sports Ministry Could Have Done More for Women's Doubles)

The 25-year-old is undergoing eight hours of on-court and off-court training. Four hours she spends time on practising badminton and as much time she spends in the gym.

"I am at Bangalore, in the academy so my full concentration is on my performance. My coach is giving me all the encouragement to show by best performance," she said.

"My training part is very good, I am getting all possible help and facilities required for the improvement of badminton player game and skill," she added.

It has been a breakthrough year for Saina, who became the first Indian woman shuttler to reach the number one status in world badminton in April. She eventually went through a series of ups and downs before holding the number 2 position for the last one and a half months.

"The number one is not static, it changes with the time and performance. Chinese girl Li Xuerui who was number one for almost entire year has slumped to third position," Saina said.

The girl from Hyderabad said she could regain her number one slot again by putting some consistent performance.

"My performance is showing some progress, that is, I am getting good training. I am trying to maintain my performance by giving 100 per cent from my side as a player. May be because of that I got that position," she added.

Replying to a query on a tiff between India Coach Pullela Gopichand and Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponappa, Saina said, "That is entirely a subject of women doubles game. I never tried my hand on it. I am a single player." (Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa Getting All the Support: Pullela Gopichand)