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Badminton

All England Open: PV Sindhu or Saina Nehwal? Who has performed better in the tournament?

If one talks about the performance of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu at the All England Open, Nehwal clearly has the wood on Sindhu.

Badminton Saina Nehwal PV Sindhu Gopichand
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Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu at All England Open Badminton Championships (Source: Twitter/BAI)
By

Abhijit Nair

Published: 20 March 2021 1:00 PM GMT

Though India has enjoyed some major success at the top-level in badminton, the same cannot be really said about their performances at the All England Badminton Open. Over the years, only two Indians have managed to win this prestigious tournament for the country – Prakash Padukone in 1980 and Pullela Gopichand in 2001.

Despite putting up terrific performances in the tournament, the All England title has somehow evaded the Indians. Only three Indians have managed to reach the semifinals of the All England Open more than once – Prakash Padukone did it 5 times, Saina Nehwal thrice and with her foray into the semifinal of the tournament in 2021 PV Sindhu featured in an All England semifinal for the second time in her career.

With two active players, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, in the list, to have played multiple All England Open semifinals, we do the next best thing – A Comparison between the two in the tournament.



In the 2021 edition, while Saina Nehwal exited in the opening round, Sindhu reached the semifinal where she conceded a defeat against Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong

The following table represents both Nehwal and Sindhu's performance at the All England Open over the years:

Years

Saina Nehwal

PV Sindhu

2020

First Round

Quarterfinals

2019

Quarters

First Round

2018

First Round

Semis

2017

Quarters

Quarters

2016

Quarters

First Round

2015

Final

DNP

2014

Quarters

First Round

2013

Semis

Second Round

2012

Quarters

First Round

2011

Quarters

-

2010

Semis

-

2009

First Round

-

2008

First Round

-

2007

Second Round

-

Total wins

23 off 38 matches

8 off 17 matches


Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal (Source: BWF)


The 31-year-old Saina Nehwal has been a constant feature at the All England Badminton Open since she made her debut at the tournament in the year 2007. Nehwal made her debut at the tournament as a 17 year old and crashed out of the tournament in the second round.

She has since participated in 13 more editions of the tournament and has featured in six quarterfinals, two semifinals and had reached the final once, in the year 2015. This might seem to be pretty impressive at first, but the fact that she has a total of four first-round exits in 14 editions somewhere takes off the sheen.

All in all, Nehwal has played a total of 37 matches at the All England Open with a total of 23 wins i.e. she has won a total of 62.16% of her matches in this particular tournament.

On the other hand, she has reached the quarterfinals 42.85% of the time, semifinals 14.28% of time, final 7.14% of the time. Besides, she has crashed out of the tournament in the tournament 28.57% of the time.

PV Sindhu


PV Sindhu (Source: Twitter/@ESPNIndia)

Much like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu too made her All England Open debut as a 17-year-old in the year 2012. But, unlike Nehwal who reached the second round on her debut, Sindhu bowed out of the tournament in the very first round itself.

Since then she has participated in seven more editions of the tournament, with the only exception being the year 2015 when she did not feature in the tournament due to a stress fracture.

Overall, Sindhu has played a total of 17 matches at the All England Open and has won 8 of those matches i.e. she has a winning record of less than 50% in this tournament.

On the other side, she has reached the quarterfinals 25% of the time, semifinals 12.5% of the time and has never reached the final. Besides, she bowed out of the tournament in the very first round 50% of the time.

Conclusion

If one talks about the performance of Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu at the All England Open (excluding the year 2021), Nehwal clearly has the wood on Sindhu.



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