Back To Her Hyderabad Nest, What Next?

Saina Nehwal, the star badminton campaigner, IS BACK with chief national coach Pullela Gopi Chand at his Academy after a three-year stint with Vimal Kumar in Bengaluru. What plans does she have for her game in the days to come? V. V. SUBRAHMANYAM finds out.

- V. V. Subrahmanyam

For close to one year, Saina Nehwal, the ace woman shuttler who set benchmarks in terms of excellence at the highest level, even for the likes of the current queen of Indian badminton, P. V. Sindhu, has been feeling the hurt at being spoken of very badly after her early exit from the 2016 Rio Olympics.

And, interestingly, the star campaigner is back with chief national coach Pullela Gopi Chand at his Academy after a three-year stint with Vimal Kumar in Bengaluru.

THE REASON? “For a while, I have been thinking about moving my training base back to the Gopi Chand Academy and I had a discussion about this with Gopi Sir,” Saina tweeted about this move. “And, I am really thankful to him for agreeing to help me again. At this stage in my career I think he can help me achieve my goals,” the champion shuttler said.

Saina also gracefully thanked Vimal Kumar (coach) for all his support. “I am also very thankful to Vimal Sir for helping me for the last three years. He helped me reach the World No. 1 in the rankings and also win two World championship medals (silver in 2015 and bronze in the recent edition) along with many Super Series titles,” she said.

And, not surprisingly, she was more keen on talking about the bronze medal she won in the Glasgow World championship than on the subject of moving over to Hyderabad even as she set her targets on qualifying for the year-ending Dubai World Super Series final.

The champion shuttler from Hyderabad feels that the bronze (her second after winning the silver in the 2015 edition) of the Glasgow World Championship recently is immensely satisfying for her.