Saina Nehwal makes a triumphant return home

Hyderabad, June 28 (ANI): After winning her first ever super series badminton title in Indonesia, Saina Nehwal arrived in Hyderabad, her home city on Saturday.

Ranked number eight in the world, Nehwal won her first super series event in Indonesia on June 21, raising India's hopes of a strong performance at the World Championships to be staged here in August.

Nehwal who is the world junior champion beat China's Lin Wang 12-21 21-18 21-9, having lost to world number three at the Singapore Super Series the previous week.

However, her dream of pocketing back-to-back titles went up in smoke as Chinese qualifier Xin Wang stunned the second-seeded Indian in the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament at Johor Bahru on Friday (June 26).

"I don't want to compare myself with players who have already won that. So I tried to compare with the Chinese but it is really great, fantastic. Now I think I will be able to win more super series event and I look forward to win some bigger events like All England Championship. (Q. What happened in Malaysia?) I was little bit tired because it was really tough tournament. I played all the top 20 players in the tournament from day one, it was really hectic," said Nehwal.

Nehwal, 19, became the first Indian woman to reach the Olympic singles quarter-finals in Beijing last year. (ANI)