Saina Nehwal Says She Was "Nervous" During World Badminton Championships Final

She'd never been this close to a world title, and on Sunday Saina Nehwal missed out on becoming the first world champion from India. But her 16-21, 19-21 loss to Spain's Carolina Marin who defended her title successfully, hasn't left Saina gutted. "I don't think Carolina played extraordinary badminton, it's just that I made some errors that I could have avoided easily," Saina told NDTV from Jakarta.

Saina came into Sunday's final after two tough previous round matches. In the quarter-final, the 26 year old Hyderabadi beat her nemesis, China's Yihan Wang, in three games. And though the semi-final was a straight games affair against local player Lindaweni Fanetri, Saina admitted after that match that it was one of the toughest she had played.

"I will admit that coming into the final was a bit overwhelming for me," Saina said. "And that nervousness is natural I guess. Any player who says they were coming into a match like this with their mind fully free would be lying. The pressure was more on me because Carolina had played the final last year too, whereas for me it was a first time." (Saina Was Under Pressure: Father | 'Mistakes Cost Me Gold')

Saina is also the kind of athlete who challenges herself constantly. And the fact that she had lost to the same opponent in the final of the All England Championships earlier this year certainly played on her mind during the game. "That's the last time I played her, obviously it will not disappear completely. But I think I ended up putting too much pressure on myself."

That is where Saina will have to make amends, according to her coach, Vimal Kumar. "Today right from the beginning she was defensive," Kumar told NDTV from Jakarta. "More than focusing on what she must do to win points, she seemed more bothered about what Carolina was going to do."

Saina, who shifted base to Bengaluru last year to train under Vimal Kumar at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy feels it's one of the best decisions she made. "Moving base has made a huge difference to me," says Saina. "I have to try and keep the negatives away. After a not so great 2013 and 2014, this year I made it to All England and World Championships finals, and achieved the World No. 1 ranking too. I think that's a lot to achieve in such little time. I really didn't expect to make it to the final here."

Saina said she was relieved to get beyond the quarter-final stage in her seventh attempt at the World Badminton Championships. "You won't believe what a massive mental block it was," Saina admits. "I am glad to have gone past it."

With the Chinese not looking at their devastating best, and not even having made it to the last four of the tournament, did Saina then miss out on her best chance to become a world champion? "I don't think so long term," the Olympic bronze medallist says. "All these tournaments will happen every year, and I will play in them too. For now, I just want to focus on the next few Super Series tournaments and work on the errors that I made here."

After a short break, Saina gets back on the circuit with tournaments in Japan and South Korea after this.