Saina Nehwal can deliver a lot under Pullela Gopichand if she focuses on fitness, says Vimal Kumar

After Saina Nehwal’s surprise split with coach Vimal Kumar, it has now emerged that the ace shuttler decided to switch following a bronze at the recently-concluded World Badminton Championships in Glasgow.

The World No 12 will return to the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy to work with Mulyo Handoyo and other coaches at the national camp in Hyderabad.

The Olympic bronze medallist expressed her desire to return to the academy on Monday via Twitter stating that she’d been thinking about moving to Hyderabad for a while. “Saina told me about moving after we came back from the Championships. She had messaged me after returning (from Glasgow) that she is nursing a slight hamstring injury and she wanted to give it a try for a week or 10 days (at the Gopichand Academy) which would also mean that she can also be with her parents and friends (back home). She was missing them all and I said you should give it a try and explore the possibilities,” Vimal Kumar told Firstpost.

While Saina won bronze, one of Gopichand’s star wards PV Sindhu won silver at the world event. Homesickness was one of the reasons why Saina wanted a move back to Hyderabad and Kumar did not want to stop his pupil from taking decisions which would help her grow. “It was only last week that she expressed her feelings and she was quite focused, even I was pleased with her progress after the knee injury. Things are quite okay with her now, as a top player, we have to respect her decision. We are always looking at ways to get better so that at the end of the career they shouldn’t have regrets,” Kumar added.

Saina moved to the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bengaluru three years ago after the 2014 World Championships in Copenhagen. Under the tutelage of Kumar, the 27-year-old attained the World No 1 spot in April 2015 and two World Championship medals before being laid low by injury ahead of the Rio Olympics last year. It was only the second time that an Indian had achieved the top ranking after Prakash Padukone achieved the feat.

The former World No 1 thanked Kumar for his efforts and said that she was looking forward to working with Gopichand again. “I’m also very thankful to Vimal sir for helping me for the last three years. He helped reach world no.1 in the rankings,” Saina tweeted.

I'm also very thankful to Vimal sir for helping me for the last three years. He helped reach world no.1 in the rankings ..

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 4, 2017

With the introduction of Indonesian coach Mulyo Handoyo, who formerly coached Taufik Hidayat to an Olympic gold, Gopichand has had the time to look after his pupils, who in return, have produced a string of good results in recent tournaments. Moreover, looking at the fitness levels of some of the Indian singles shuttlers, there is a possibility that Saina was impressed with the progress of the fellow players under Handoyo and that helped her in her decision to return to Hyderabad.

“As a coach, it is our responsibility that the players reach their full potential and provide them everything. I’ve been very clear with this since the beginning. When she mentioned that she wanted to go back to the Gopichand Academy, I had no issues at all. I told her to take care of her physical training as far as her fitness is concerned. She always did extra work and these things affected her later with a few injuries. So, if she can take care of that, she can deliver a lot under Gopichand and Handoyo,” said Kumar.

Saina said she was thankful to Gopichand for accepting her into his fold again, as she believes that he can help her achieve her goals. “Saina is looking at doing well at the 2018 Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and qualify for the year end Dubai Superseries Finals. If she can manage to do all of that, it’ll be a huge achievement. There is a good possibility that she is also looking at regaining her number one spot as there are no doubts about her quality, she is as good as any top player. Moreover, the World Championships are also happening every year. These aspirations are good to have and I fully support her decision,” explained Kumar.

Kumar also stated that Saina and Sindhu can shine at the forthcoming events. “Saina is a special player and when an opportunity arrived, she wanted to make full use of it. Her main objective will be winning the Asian gold. Sindhu and Saina can definitely bring home a gold,” he added.

After Saina’s decision to move back to where she started her career, Kumar said that now he will concentrate on grooming a lot of young shuttlers and further added that he was looking forward to working at the new Padukone-Dravid Centre For Sports Excellence which will be inaugurated in December.