She might have won almost all big events in a short span of her international career but Olympic champion and World No. 1 Carolina Marin of Spain says she is still hungry for titles.
"It is most difficult to stay at the top. I want to get more titles. I want to repeat the performance at All England, World Championship, European Championship and win some more Super Series titles," said the 23-year-old, who clinched the World Championship twice in 2014 and 2015 and won the All England Championship last year before becoming the Olympic champion in August at Rio.
Interestingly, Marin had defeated Saina Nehwal in the finals of the All England and World Championship last year and P V Sindhu at the summit clash of the Rio Olympics.
"I think both are great players, I can't select one of them, both are different and tough to beat. I really have to get my 100 per cent to defeat them," said Marin ahead of her team's last league match against Delhi Acers on Friday.
Asked about the level of competition at the top, Marin said: "I feel all the top 10 players are of the same level and we can defeat each other any day but I can feel now that I am number one everyone wants to defeat me. My motivation was to be number one. So it was always to work hard and stay at No. 1."
Marin is representing the Hyderabad Hunters at the second season of the Premier Badminton League, where a 11-point best of three games scoring system is being employed. In fact, BWF is also trying an 11-point scoring system in international circuit as well.
Asked about her views about the scoring system, Marin said: "This is the first time I have played in 11-point system. Now my performance is really good. I had one week break before I came here, I couldn't train a lot. For this kind of scoring system here it is good for me. I don't know if I can recommend this scoring in international circuit, let's see. But if BWF use these scoring then we have to change a lot of things to compete in this system."
A big fan of compatriot and multiple Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, Marin said she was delighted to meet him at the Rio Olympics village and believed that the tennis star, who is going through a rough patch of late, will make a successful comeback.
"I met Rafael Nadal at the Rio Olympic village and I believe he can make a comeback as he is a hard working player."
Asked how much Nadal knows about badminton, Marin's coach Fernando Rivas said: "There is a funny story. When I met him in 2008 in Beijing and introduced myself and I told him I am a badminton coach, he said badminton is very tiring. So imagine we are used to seeing him play five-hour matches but he is saying it is too tiring for him."
Image: Carolina Marin
Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
