The Badminton contingent may not be in the reckoning for medals in the Olympics but as the Indian shuttlers Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal gear up for the August 8-24 Beijing extravaganza, they would be looking to spring up a few surprises and make some heads turn. India does not have a spectacular history in the Olympics to take inspiration from, but the Indian duo would like to change all that and write a new script especially after their recent performance in various international platforms.

Both Sridhar and Saina had an impressive run in the last one year and on the basis of their ranking in the Badminton World Federation's list, the two made the cut for the Olympics. While Sridhar became the top-ranked shuttler in India at 25, Saina broke into the world top-20 at 15. Sridhar's impressive performance at the World Championships in 2007, where he had defeated 2005 world champion and 2004 Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat was a career high point for him and he soon became the first to book his ticket for Beijing. But his ankle injury pushed him back, denting his performance in the recent tournaments. No exception that he decided to pull out of the Tata Open fearing it might aggravate his injury in the run up to the Olympics. However, Sridhar is unfazed by his injuries and says he is physically fit to take on his opponents. "My previous injuries don't really play on my mind, I have learnt to understand my body and to have it in control. Currently, I am in the best physical shape of my life so that gives me a lot of confidence," he said.

While Sridhar's affair with injuries might be an issue, his compatriot Saina does not have any such concern. She had a very resounding journey so far and has been in the best of form. The Hyderabadi girl lost only five matches in the last five tournaments that she played. The 18-year-old shuttler made it to the final four in the Singapore Open and reached the quarterfinals in the Thailand Open. Moreover, the Indian shuttlers have also been handed a reasonably favorable draw and while Saina's path to the pre-quarterfinals looks relatively smooth, her male counterpart Sridhar will have to break a few bones. However, Sridhar says draws does not bother him much as he has his task already cut out. "I am not focusing too much on the draw. I have my task cut out for me as every player is going to be playing at high intensity at the Olympics regardless of ranking or previous record," he said. The 25-year-old shuttler further told "My first encounter is against Portugal's Marco Vasconcelos who I haven't played before so I'll be speaking with some of my fellow players at the Academy to know more about his style of play before I leave. The others in my quarter of the draw - Shoji Sato, Peter Gade and Lin Dan - are all high quality players. I've played Sato and Lin Dan a number of times before and have a good sense of their games. If I play at my best, I am reasonably confident that I will do well".

But given the history of Indian in the Olympics, both the shuttlers are reluctant to count their chickens before they are hatched. "To keep things in perspective and stay focused, I am aiming to treat it like any other major tournament. As my approach, I want to just take it one match at a time and aim for good results at each stage," said Sridhar. National Champion Saina also does not want to make tall claims and wishes to play her natural game. "I am playing well now and hope to get good results in Beijing. I have to improve my defense and am working on it. I am applying myself and want to play to my strength. I hope to do well in Olympics," she said.

Coach Gopichand is also not expecting a medal as of now, but feels both the shuttlers will spring up some surprises. "I am very optimist. Both have done really well in the past and I fell both of them will do well in Olympics. Although, realistically they should look to get past the quaterfinals first," he said.

"However, it won't be easy considering the amount of pressure that Olympics brings with it, they have got good draws but it depends on the day and ranking does not really matter," he added.