Her eyes trained on the Chinese, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on Tuesday revealed that long before winning the recently-held Swiss Open, she had to endure a difficult phase which, at times, even made her weep.

World number five Saina broke a prolonged title drought, beating third-ranked Shixian Wang of China 21-19, 21-16 in a thrilling 48-minute contest, which helped her defend the women's singles title in Basel, Switzerland.

But all was not hunky dory prior to that triumph. "It was really painful. I had to listen (to) a lot of things... cried a lot and it was a tough phase for me. (I had to endure) lot of pains, lot of injuries to get that confidence back," Saina said.

Image: Saina Nehwal
Photographs: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images