She has been dozing off midway through callout-bubbles of an Archies comic, yawning well before reaching the twists of an unfinished Harry Potter plot. Saina Nehwal insists she could once flip pages as swiftly as she conjures half-smashes now. But hectic training-schedules over the last two years have meant the 18-year-old droops out soon after picking what were once rapid page-turning paperbacks. On court too, the going’s gotten tough.

After a dream 2006, where she stormed onto the scene with some marquee wins, Nehwal has had to battle her sophomore year absorbing more losses than wins and copping more pressure than praise while finding her feet in badminton’s senior level. With the spotlight on her at home in the $120,000 Indian Open starting on April 1, the Hyderabadi is determined to not let the pressure wreck her nerves.

Eye-opening year

“Playing under pressure doesn’t win you matches — it simply ruins performance. I know I have to win games. That’s all that will make people happy,” Nehwal says. “But If I set out trying to prove a point to everyone, I’ll just put more pressure on myself. Last year was an eye-opener.”

Like the Potter volume, which is book-marked around the same page for many months and never seems to move on, the other thing annoying her is leading in third games and then spoiling it all by rushing to close out matches.

“I’ve played a few top-10 players in the last one year. And in most close matches, I’ve played negative in the end, trying to hurry it up. It was clearly lack of experience against the biggies. I don’t want to repeat those mistakes — just stay relaxed,” she stresses.

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