Saina Nehwal is better but she must be the best, says Pullela Gopichand – Badminton News
It seems chief coach of India Pullela Gopichand will keep pushing Saina Nehwal to bring out her best in London Olympics as he declared that she must dig deep into her reserve of talent in the future.
The badminton queen, who holds fifth spot in world rankings, has bagged two consecutive international titles, Thailand Open and Indonesia Open last month and these successful outings will really help her in the coming edition of the Olympics.
Though, badminton guru Gopichand admitted that Saina has showed elevation in her craft but he believes that she will have to develop winning habit to make a long lasting impact in the arena.
He said, “Saina’s game is different today from how it was a few years ago. It’s important for her to keep getting better and sharper.”
The Khel Ratna and Dronacharya awardee coach, who also runs Gopichand Badminton Academy, has guided her all the way to glory and he will leave no stone unturned to ensure that she matches world beaters in terms of mental and physical strength.
In the beginning of ongoing season, he advised Saina to lose weight to stay sharp on court and that move has yielded good results in the previous couple of months.
Meanwhile, Gopichand is also watching steps of youngsters like P.V. Sindhu, K Srikanth, Sourabh Verma, Sameer Verma, Sai Praneeth and Guru Sai Dutt and he is satisfied with their progress in recent past.
However, he stated that these youngsters lack consistency which is essential to gain respectable position in badminton world.
He said, “The younger guys are getting results against the second-rung Indonesians and Malaysians. We need them to be consistent. We’re getting better but we need to move to the next level.”
Though, former All-England Champion Pullela Gopichand has the useful assistance of international coaches like Hadi Idris, Atik Jauhari and Edwin Iriwan still he always puts an extra effort to make his shuttlers more skilful.
He unveiled his secret recipe of success by commenting that he always plans to beat opponent’s move even before it is made.
Now his craft will be tested in London Games where five Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap, Diju V, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will be trying hard to escort the country to glory.
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