New Delhi: India's star badminton player will be missing at the China Open next month.
Officials say Saina Nehwal has nobody to blame but herself. Her letter, confirming that she wanted to participate in the tournament, reached them a day after the deadline for entries.
But Saina points out that her coach and she were wrapped up in the World Championships in Hyderabad. The World Number 7 explains, "When we got to know about it, it was already delayed by one day. They did not accept our entry as we are late by one day. We tried two to three times, but we could not succeed, they are also very strict."
So why didn't officials just call Saina? After all, this is a big international tournament. The Badminton Federation of India concedes it should have probably entered world number 6 Saina anyway. All it would have lost was the entry fee of 250 dollars.
The Federation defends its stand: "I have investigated the matter and found out that the federation is not at fault...we cannot send in entries for Super Series without a written consent of a player," says V K Verma- President, Badminton Federation of India
So the result is that Saina will sit out the same tournament where she sparkled last year, beating the then world champion.