Mumbai: Next year’s London Games is Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal’s best chance to earn Olympic glory but for that to happen she needs to improve her physical fitness considerably, feels Indonesian legend Rudy Hartono.
The eight-time All-England men’s singles champion, who is back in India after four decades, said although Saina is a very good stroke-player, that alone would not fetch her an Olympic gold or world championship title.
“I have seen Saina Nehwal play. She is a good stroke player but that alone is not enough to become a world champion. She needs to work hard on her fitness. Its no good only to impress with your stroke-play, but you need to finish off points,” Hartono told reporters at the National Sports Club of India on Monday.
NSCI, which is building a modern indoor stadium at its premises in Worli, felicitated the shuttler who revolutionised the way the game was played with his all-out aggression in the 1960s.
The felicitation function was organised jointly with the Maharashtra Badminton Association and Yonex Sunrise here.
Hartono, who won seven All-England titles in-a-row between 1968 and 1974, which was then considered the unofficial world championship, went on to win the official world crown too in 1980 aged 31.
“Saina has this year and the next, which is the year of the Olympics, for the big one. A badminton player is at his or her peak between the ages of 20 and 26. She needs to prepare herself very well by training hard for the big events,” said the 61-year-old shuttle great. (PTI)