Hyderabad, Aug 10 - Peter Gade has long fought Chinese domination in world badminton. The Danish veteran sees the same fire in India's teen star Saina Nehwal and says she is the best thing that has happened to the sport in a long time.

Gade, at 32, is ranked third in the world. He knows he is not getting any younger but is determined to continue as he feels badminton needs non-Chinese players like him to stay at the top. And when someone like Saina fearlessly takes on the Chinese challenge, Gade has all the reason to believe that he has been successful in showing youngsters the way.

'Saina is a very good player and she deserves all the compliments. It's good for the game that Saina has come up and is giving a fight to the Chinese dominance. In fact, she is better then some of the Chinese players,' said Gade, a former All England Champion, on the sidelines of he World Badminton Championships here Monday.

'She is just 19 and has age on her side. I hope the media does not get carried away and puts too much pressure on her. She has a long way to go and if she remains injury free, she has a bright future.'

Gade's compatriot Tine Rasmussen is another player who has been able to climb her way up among the Chinese.

'She (Rasmussen) is an excellent player and I hope she does well here. But there are not many like them in my country. The government needs to provide more support to the sport,' said Gade, who opened his campaign with a 21-11, 21-16 win over Ukraine's Valerily Atrashchenkov.