Saina to skip tournaments in 2014 to focus on fitness

Mumbai: After a disappointing 2013 in which she failed to win a single title, suffered injuries and saw her world ranking taking a dip, Saina Nehwal has decided to cut down on the number of tournaments next year to remain injury-free.
“If I look back now I think I played a lot. Next year, I will make sure that I skip a few tournaments and focus on my fitness and perform my best in a tournament,” Saina told reporters here on Monday.
The London Olympics bronze medallist, who is currently ranked eight after starting the year as the world No. 3 in women’s singles, said it will take her at least a month to reach her peak fitnesss level.
“It will take time. I actually had put on a lot of weight also in between. So that really affected my movement. Now I am coming back to my good (level). I am feeling quite fit,” said the 23-year-old shuttler.
“It might take one more month to come back to the best of my fitness but I will make sure that I keep maintaining it during tournaments,” she said.
Saina said her performance during years when there were major events like the Olympics or Asian Games had been good, which was an encouraging sign as in 2014 there were the Commonwealth Games in Scotland followed by the Asiad in South Korea.
“Next year, I will try by working on my fitness, playing less tournaments and focusing more on training. I think I missed that this year. I played too many tournaments.
“My fitness was down and I could feel that my stamina was low. In the long matches, my breathing was difficult which wasn’t right,” she added. (PTI)