Saina Nehwal who returned with a bronze medal from the recent Badminton World Championships in Glasgow, announced on Monday that she is shifting base to Hyderabad to again train under Pullela Gopichand at the Gopichand academy.
In a series of tweets, she said that she had a discussion with former coach Gopichand who agreed to train her again and she is very thankful for that.
She further said that at this stage of her career, she feels Gopichand could be the right coach to help her achieve her goals.
Expressing gratitude to current coach Vimal Kumar, she acknowledged his contribution in the last three years in helping her attain the world number one ranking. She also credited him for two medals from the World Championships in 2015 and 2017 as well as winning Super Series titles.
It may be recalled that Saina had split with coach Gopichand in September 2014 and moved from Hyderabad to Bengaluru to train under Vimal Kumar.
Plagued by a right knee injury, the Hyderabadi was knocked out of the first round of Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Forced to go under the knife, she began her rehabilitation process with physiotherapist Heath Matthews and resumed her regular training recently under her coach U. Vimal Kumar.
Saina had been training with Gopichand since 2006 and moved out once in 2011 to train with Baskar Babu for a short period. The Gopichand academy had seen many new rising stars in this period, PV Sindhu being the most prominent. Vimal Kumar is chief coach at the Prakash Padukone academy.
For a while I've been thinking about moving my training base back to the Gopichand academy and I had a discussion about this with Gopi sir
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 4, 2017
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 .
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 4, 2017
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
And also helped me win two world championships medal silver in 2015 and bronze in 2017 along with many super series titles ..
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 4, 2017
I m very happy to b back home and train in Hyderabad keep supporting friends
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 4, 2017