The hype surrounding tennis ace Sania Mirza may be bigger, but ace shuttler Saina Nehwal clearly holds the edge in terms of performance, feels badminton legend Prakash Padukone.
Comparing both the Hyderabadis' achievements, Padukone said the fact that Saina has beaten more higher-ranked players than Sania tilts the balance in the shuttler's favour.
"I don't go by the rankings, which can be achieved by picking and choosing the tournaments one wants to play. But Saina has beaten more top-rated players than Sania and I would rate her performance higher," the former Indian ace said.
Prakash felt Saina, who recently won the Indonesian Super Series, has it in her to become world No 1 in two years' time.
"Saina has all the qualities to become the world number one, provided she continues to work hard and maintains her form," Prakash said, on the sidelines of a media conference to announce the entries for the Tata Open Badminton tournament, commencing at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Prakash said from whatever little he has seen of Saina's game of late, she seems to have improved her net play and movement on court.
"She has improved her play at the net and is also moving better. She has always been fit but now seems fitter. But she should not rest on her laurels and strive to get better in all these areas," he said.
He also exhorted India's men's shuttlers, five of whom are in the top 50, to take inspiration from Saina's performances and put up better displays at the international level.
"They should draw inspiration from Saina's performance. After all, the facilities for her and them are the same. What I feel is that they need to improve their self-belief when playing against the top players from China, Indonesia and so on.
"I'm happy that five of our men's shuttlers are in the top 50 and seven are in the top 100, but this is not enough. They are all talented and hard-working, but need to put in more effort," he said.
The former All-England champion said in tournaments, like the Super Series, a player needs to get past three or four very highly rated rivals before winning the title.
"They should be prepared to take on three or four top players in succession from early on," he said.
Prakash agreed that the depth in women's competitions is not as high as that in the men's, but said it does not take anything away from Saina's performance.
"It's not her fault. It's the same in tennis too, I guess," he added.
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