Former all-England badminton champion Pullela Gopichand has been honoured with all major sports awards - the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dronacharya. His experience taught him a lot and today, he coaches badminton champ Saina Nehwal. Gopichand tells Urmila Rao of Careers 360, how his career took shape.
The quarter-final ouster in World Championship is a thing of past for ace shuttler Saina Nehwal whose only target is now to clinch a medal for the country in next month's Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi.
Sai Praneeth and H S Prannoy will represent India in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and the young shuttlers said they would settle for nothing less than a gold in the inaugural edition of mega-event starting on August 13.
With a hat-trick of international titles and a career-best world ranking of number three, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has already achieved the targets that she had set for 2010, a jubilant national coach Pullela Gopichand said on Sunday.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) shut down the world tour and other sanctioned tournaments following the completion of the All-England in March due to the global health crisis.
Saina Nehwal scripted history on Sunday, becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament after clinching the Indonesian Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta.
Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are training at separate academies of national coach Pullela Gopichand ever since their epic Commonwealth Games summit clash
Pullela Gopichand hoped that one of the three prodigal talents he has shaped will end the 18-year-old title drought at the event this year.
The Badminton Association of India are hoping to finalise the duo's appointments by the end of this month.
Saina Nehwal faces a tricky draw in the Asian Badminton Championships as most of the shuttlers she is likely to play against have defeated her in the past, feels national coach Pullela Gopichand.
Set to become the first Indian to win all the national sports awards, former All-England badminton champion Pullela Gopichand on Tuesday said being honoured as both player and coach has put a responsibility on him to take the game forward in the country.
Ace woman shuttler Saina Nehwal scripted history on Sunday, becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament after clinching the Indonesian Open with a stunning victory over higher-ranked Chinese Lin Wang in Jakarta.
The former Indian badminton ace upheld the BAI's decision to make it mandatory for players to participate in the ongoing national camp.
The $150,000 Indian Open championship had been scheduled from September 4 to 9.
Saina Nehwal returns to the court after a three-week injury lay-off at the Yonex All England Open Super Series on Wednesday. The Indian ace opens her campaign at the prestigious tournament against old French foe Hongyan Pi. World number 13 Chetan Anand, who also stayed away from the National Championships owing to a thigh injury, will take on Andrew Smith of England in the first round on Wednesday.
"The whole idea of this launch and fund-raiser on May 5 is to build a corpus and to support more (children)," he said.
Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu will learn from her mistakes and perform better in future, her father P V Ramana said on Saturday. "(Sindhu's opponent) Carolina Marin has played an excellent game and she truly deserves the championship. "However we assure you under the guidance of her coach (P Gopichand) in the coming years, Sindhu will definitely perform well and keep the hopes of the all the Indians high," Ramana told reporters with a hint of disappointment after the watching the match at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.
With her silver from Rio, PV Sindhu is already India's most successful female Olympian but her World Championship triumph also boosted the nation's hopes of a medal in Tokyo next year.
But Pullela Gopichand, Anup Sridhar, Arvind Bhat and Abhinn Shyam Gupta were shown.
The former All England Badminton champion is set to take over as India's chief badminton coach for a four-year period.
The Indian badminton ace is working to a schedule in preparation for the international season ahead.
Gopichand failed to offer much resistance, losing to seventh seeded Niels Christian Kaldau of Denmark in straight sets, in the second round.
Aparna Popat entered the main draw after beating Commonwealth Games champion Li Li of Singapore.
Kidambi Srikkanth is a big fan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and he was in for a pleasant surprise when he received a cricket bat
Sindhu had resumed training last month under the supervision of Korean coach Park Tae-Sang after the Sports Authority of India
Sania Mirza, Mithali Raj and Pullela Gopichand, on Wednesday, sent out a strong message on encouraging women players and developing essential infrastructure to promote sports in the country
Pullela Gopichand only managed to win five points from the two games.
Pullela Gopichand and Aparna Popat booked a place in the main draw.
The badminton ace would be playing in six international tournaments in the next two months.
The former All England badminton champion thrashed compatriot J B S Vidyadhar Rao in the men's singles final.
Both romped into the second round in the US $10,000 Asian Satellite badminton championship.
Both states try to outsmart each other in felicitating the shuttler.
The 125-ranked Indian badminton ace, whose career has been dogged by injury, wants to reach the top 30-35 this year.
India's badminton ace Saina Nehwal tied the knot with fellow badminton player and long time partner Parupalli Kashyap in Hyderabad on Friday.
India's only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra was named on a panel entrusted with the task of preparing the blueprint for the country's success at the next three Games, the sports ministry said on Monday.
However, Anup Sridhar and Arvind Bhat went through the qualifying round at Birmingham on Tuesday.
National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand remained tightlipped about his split with Saina Nehwal, saying he doesn't want to talk about the issue as the Asian Games is just round the corner.
Merely about 57 lakh people out of 125 crore people are engaged in sports, directly and indirectly.
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