Bangkok: Saina Nehwal won her postponed first-round match as the former world no. 1 from India beat Malaysia's Kisona Selvaduray 21-15, 21-15 at BWF World Tour 1000 Yonex Thailand Open in Bangkok on Wednesday.
When asked about being able to return to the court after positive COVID test earlier this week, she said" "I think mentally, it disturbs you. When you are coming to the tournament to play well, you have prepared well and suddenly something like this happens, definitely plays in your mind. But I understand the situation."
"My RT-PCR was positive, but I already have the antibodies, which says that sometimes the cells remain for a long period of time and sometimes you can get negative or positive. But I did all the tests I wanted to do it because I wanted to check again. And the doctor was like, yeah, you had the antibodies, and you're not going to infect anyone. You already got it. So I was happy with that. I was relieved with that. But after that, the decision comes off the BWF to put the match today. So it was really, really nice of them. And but I'm happy I could win the match. Of course, it was very tiring. I don't know. I slept at around 9:00 pm in the night and woke up around 1:00 pm in the afternoon. So it was quite, quite disturbing. But I'm happy I was recovered and I could move well today," she added.
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Nehwal, fellow Indian player HS Prannoy and Jones Ralfy Jansen of Germany, were positive from tests on Monday.
But retesting the samples early Tuesday cleared all but Nehwal, whose scheduled first-round opponent Kisona was given a walkover win.
"I think this is something very dangerous, the whole world is suffering from COVID. And in fact, I suffered from it in November. And in India, as you know, it's too much. So we all know how the conditions are. But I'm really happy with the way BWF has got back the game. Badminton was the only sport, I think, which didn't start, the other one is tennis. The other sports were happening. But I think it's a big decision about what they did. And I would like to thank the Thailand government and also to keep the tournament back to back. It's not an easy task, but I'm very happy. And the players are also very safe. Everything is going on fine. So hats off to the association and the organisation to conduct it very well," she concluded.
Another round of swab and anti-body tests later Tuesday revealed Nehwal, Prannoy and Jansen were positive to both.
However, the Thailand Ministry of Public Health cleared them because it decided the trio contracted the coronavirus late last year but was not currently infected.
