Meeting Saina Nehwal

Date: August 8th, 2009

Venue: Hotel ITC Kakatiya, Hyderabad
Event: Launch of Saina Nehwal as Brand Ambassador of Deccan Chronicle and Odyssey
Experience: Awesome

I was happy to meet Saina Nehwal, India's top shuttler and ranked No. 6 in the world. She is an enthusiastic, down-to-earth and a sweet youngster. A very determined and dedicated sports person. Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures Limited have entered into Sports Personality Management and Saina is the first sports personality to be signed by them. Deccan Chargers' first undertaking was to rope Deccan Chronicle and Odyssey as Saina's official sponsors. It was a privilege to meet Saina's distinguished coach, Pullela Gopichand.

Saina was very happy with the support and encouragement provided by DeccanChronicle. Though she was recovering from a bout of chicken pox, she played extremely well in the World Badminton Championships held in Hyderabad last week. Saina became the first Indian woman ever to reach the quarterfinals of a World Badminton Championship. She lost in the quarterfinals, but I am sure she will have more opportunities and more victories definitely await her.