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The en masse early exit of Indian shuttlers from the Badminton Asia Championship at Quingdao (China) sends an ominous message for India's chances of qualifying for the London Olympics. The Chinese and Koreans, too, continue to torment and act as stumbling blocks in India's progress. The Indian players, particularly Saina Nehwal in women's singles, and Jwala Gutta and V. Diju in mixed doubles, are striving for Olympic berths. If their performances in China are an indication, then it will be tough going for them in the qualifiers. Saina, who fell at the quarterfinals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is India's hot property, but her performances, of late. have not been very reassuring.
Saina lost to Chinese youngster, Asian junior champion Xiao Jia Chen, in straight sets at Quingdao. It may reinforce her fear that the Chinese will spoil her Olympics party. Before embarking on the Asia Championship, Saina had said that she can earn an Olympic berth, only if she manages to ride past the formidable Chinese juggernaut. But her loss to the colt, ranked much below her, is sure to shake Saina's confidence. In fact, the past one year has seen the 22-year-old struggling to keep a foothold. The only title she won in 2012 was the Yonex Swiss Open Grand Prix gold at Basel on March 18. She defended the crown after a one-year title drought, which has been the longest, after striking it rich in 2010 - the year of the Commonwealth Games. But her slide started with a defeat in the Malaysian Open Grand Prix in May 2011, and then she lost the title at the Indonesian Open Super Series, which she had won the preceding two years. What's galling Saina is that she has consistently lost to the top Chinese players. She has never beaten World No 1 Wang Yihan in their five meetings. She lost to World No 2 Wang Xin two times out of four meetings, though she has a win-loss record of 2-1 against No 3 Wang Shixian. She has lost four out of the five matches against No 4 Li Xuerui. The shuttler has an all-loss record against No 6 Jiang Yanjiao in their five matches. Though Saina has been mostly losing to the top 10 to 15 players, what has affected her confidence level is losing to No 20 ranked Japanese girl Ai Goto in the Indian Open in April last year. Saina can dream of an Olympic berth, only if she gets the "Chinese block" out of her mind. In the context of her early exit from the Asian Championship, it will be a steep climb for Saina, as she has to raise the bar considerably to play the comeuppance act against the top guns.
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