Sitting in the stands of the Setia City Convention Centre, U Vimal Kumar keenly observed 17-year-old Anmol Kharb beating her opponents at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Shah Alam. Her style, game, mettle took the national selector into flashback mode when he was India coach at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Then sitting with a 16-year-old Saina Nehwal, Vimal saw Aparna Popat lose to Tracey Hallam because of which India lost the semi-final 2-3 to England. "After the tie Saina said that if she plays the next match, she will be able to beat them," recollects Vimal. The coach decided to try out Saina, who replaced Aparna in the bronze playoff and helped India beat New Zealand 3-1 to return with a medal. Four years later, Saina became the first Indian woman to win the singles gold in Delhi.
"I can see something similar in Anmol. She stands out. Like Saina, here we had an inexperienced girl playing for India for the first time, handling the situation well with absolutely no fear. When you're young you should be like that; just come and play, not carrying baggage. And she did that. She enjoyed the situation. She reminded me of Saina," says Vimal, who guided Saina to the world No.1 ranking in 2015the only Indian woman to achieve the status.
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