After three years, Saina back with Gopichand

New Delhi, September 4

Three years after parting with coach Pullela Gopichand, Saina Nehwal has decided to resume her partnership with her long-time mentor. She would start training at his academy in Hyderabad after recovering from a thigh strain. 

“For a while I had been thinking about moving my training base back to the Gopichand Academy. I had a discussion about it with Gopi sir and I am really thankful to him for agreeing to help me again,” Saina wrote on her Twitter handle. “At this stage in my career, I think he can help me achieve my goals. I am very happy to be back home and train in Hyderabad,” she added.

Incidentally, Saina’s return to Hyderabad has more to do with Mulyo Handoyo, best known for coaching Indonesian legend Taufik Hidayat. He had been appointed as India’s singles coach earlier this year by the Badminton Association of India, and Saina apparently feels he could give her career some more thrust. Under Handoyo, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Sai Praneeth have made tremendous improvement in the last six months or so. 

“After returning from the World Championships, Saina sought my opinion about working with the Indonesian coach,” said Vimal Kumar, with whom Saina had been training for the last three years in Bengaluru. “I told her there was no harm at all in giving it a try.” 

Kumar said it was important to provide every opportunity to Saina to improve and achieve more laurels for the country. “Players have a short span at the top and they always look at ways to get better. Saina and Sindhu are special girls and if they can get even better, we should provide them those opportunities,” Kumar said. “Vimal sir helped me reach world No. 1, win two World Championships medal and many Super Series titles,” Saina tweeted. — PTI