Three years after parting ways, Saina Nehwal has once again resumed her partnership with long-time mentor and former coach Pullela Gopichand and would be starting her training at his academy in Hyderabad after recovering from a thigh strain.
The london Olympics bronze medallist, who had suffered a slight thigh strain en route to winning a bronze at the recently-concluded World Championship, had discussed about her intention with chief national coach Gopichand and her current coach Vimal Kumar.
Saina wrote on her twitter handle: "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 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. I m very happy to be back home and train in Hyderabad."
Saina returning to Hyderabad has more to do with Mulyo Handoyo, best known for coaching Indonesian legend Taufik Hidayat, who was appointed as a singles coach early this year by the Badminton Association of India (BAI). Under Mulyo, India has achieved unprecedented success with PV Sindhu returning with a World Championship silver besides winning the India Super Series. Kidambi Srikanth also clinched back-to-back titles at Indonesia and Australia, while B Sai Praneeth won his maiden Super Series at Singapore.