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rowned the women's singles champion at the recent Djarum Indonesia Open Super Series badminton championships, 19-year-old Saina Nehwal of India is eager to break the Chinese stanglehold on the game when she takes part in the upcoming world championship in her home country.

"You can beat anyone when you have the momentum. The Chinese are tough, but if you are mentally strong, you can do it," said the Indian shuttler, who swept past Lu Lan in the semifinal and third seed Wang Lin in the Djarum final in Jakarta.

"This is actually a dream come true for me before the world championship. It will definitely be tougher there. But the way I played here was excellent; I hope to do that too at home," said Saina, who beat Wang 21-12, 18-21, 9-21.

The World Badminton Championship will be held in Hyderabad from Aug. 10 to 16.

Few players have been able to breach China's domination.

"The problem is everyone gets scared of the Chinese, so there should be someone who has been there beating them... to make others feel confident," Saina said.

Saina is the current world No. 8 in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings.

"I aim to win many more Super Series," said 12th-grader, who has put her education on hold for the past two years to focus on her game.

"I work really hard and sacrifice many things," she said.

Saina, born on March 17, 1990, first got acquainted with the sport at the age of 9.

"My parents play badminton just for fun but I take it seriously," said the younger of two siblings, whose father works as an agricultural scientist.

Saina acknowledged that in India, most youngsters' main duty was to go to school.

"Luckily, I think my parents support me enough to do whatever I want to do best," she said.

Saina's game has recently been polished by Indonesian trainer Atik Djauhari, who helped the Indonesian team between 1974 and 1999. He began coaching Saina in August 2008, when the young prodigy was then the world No. 15.

"Saina is a very disciplined athlete; serious in her practice and she listens to her coach. I think those are the main keys to her success," Atik said.

He said Saina trained for seven-and-a-half hours each day.

"In India, there are three most respected people: mother, father and teacher. So it's not hard to train her, because she listens to her coach's advice," said Atik, 60, who also had coaching stint in Sweden (1999-2004) and Thailand (2006-2008).

"I expected to bring Saina to the top five in the world rankings by the end of next year. I think she has exceeded the expectations."