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Olympian shuttler Saina Nehwal expressed her desire to contribute to Indian sports and inspire young athletes, especially in badminton. She praised the talent in the upcoming generation, noting that while players like herself and P.V. Sindhu were stronger and more powerful, the new players are skilled and only need to improve their power and rally play.
Saina Nehwal, at the launch of "A Racquet's Second Life" initiative, highlighted recent strong performances by youngsters such as Tanvi Sharma at the World Junior Championships and Lakshay Sen at the Australian Open, calling them signs that India is moving in the right direction. "I really want India to do well in all the sports and if I can give back to the society, you know, if I can give back in a way that, a lot of youngsters feel motivated and really want to come into badminton, it will be a great thing for me. We have it. We definitely are doing well," Nehwal told reporters. "Of course, me and Sindhu were little more stronger and powerful players, but the upcoming generation is also very, very good, very talented. I think they will have to work little bit more on their power play and more on the rallies, but I'm sure they will do well because in last one, two years, we have seen a lot of results from the youngsters and Tanvi also recently did well in the World Junior Championships and Lakshu (Lakshya) also did extremely well today. He won the Australia Open," she added. "So this shows that we are on the right direction and the Olympics is still little far away. In the meanwhile, you have so many Super Series events to win. Do well, maintain your ranking and I'm sure girls will have to wait and watch," Saina added further. Saina Nehwal praised Yonex Sunrise's initiative, calling it a significant effort to grow badminton in India. She explained that donating used racquets can greatly help children and aspiring players from grassroots communities, villages, and lower-income families who struggle to afford expensive equipment. "So, the Racquet's Second Life is a very big and nice initiative by Yonex Sunrise and the Legends Vision. I mean, it's a vision definitely for, you know, for the game to grow in India and the Racquets, you know, people who are donating it and of course, players also can donate a lot of racquets. For the people who cannot afford it, the players who can't afford it at the grassroot level or the towns and villages and, you know, sometimes lower middle class families, you know, it's very difficult," said Saina. (ANI)
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