National badminton coach P Gopichand on Saturday expressed satisfaction with the performance of the Indian players in the just-concluded World Championships in Jakarta.
“This is the first time so many Indian players had qualified for the World Championships. All the players put up a good show. I am happy with the overall performance,” said Gopichand.
The former All England men’s singles champion was honoured by cyber gaming hub “Smaaash” Sports Foundation for his contribution to Indian badminton through a joint initiative called “Celebrate Sports” with “Bawraas” and given a cheque of `5 lakh for his badminton academy in Hyderabad.
Only Saina Nehwal could end up on the podium, winning the silver in the women’s singles, but Gopichand saw quite a few positives from the overall performance of the Indians.
While praising Saina’s silver medal winning effort, Gopichand was also happy with the way P V Sindhu (lost in the quarterfinals of women’s singles) and K Srikanth (lost in the third round) performed in the tournament after battling their way through injuries.
“There were some injury issues. Both are very young and will learn from these experiences,” said Gopichand.
World No. 14 Sindhu, who won back-to-back bronze medals in the previous two World Championships, shocked Olympic champion and former World No. 1 liu Xuerei from China in round two before losing to eighth seed Sung Ji Hyun of Chinese Taipei.