Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will once again be training under Pullela Gopichand, three years after the two had parted ways. Saina made the announcement via a series of tweets where she clarified that she had ended her association with former coach Vimal Kumar and that national coach Gopichand had agreed to help her again.
Saina, who started talking to Gopi during the World Championships in Glasgow earlier, began training at his academy recently. She had left Gopichand's academy and started training under Vimal in Bangalore from September 2, 2014. Under Vimal, Saina had a fruitful time as she had surged to the world No.1 spot, won two World Championship medals and also reached the All England final.
During the last three years, Saina had maintained a distance from Gopichand. Though they were not on talking terms, it's a fact that they have a lot of affection and respect for each other. It is under Gopichand that Saina had won a number of international titles and became the first Indian shuttler to win a medal (bronze) at the Olympics. The duo were responsible for popularising the game. Incidentally, it is not the first time that Saina had left Gopichand. A few months after she won the Commonwealth Games gold in 2010, Saina preferred to train under Bhaskar Babu. But a few days later she returned to train with Gopichand.
