Saina Nehwal, Pullela Gopichand reunite, bury the hatchet after three years

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Three years after parting ways, National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand and ace shuttler Saina Nehwal decided to bury the hatchet.

Saina, who started talking to the coach during the World Championships in Glasgow last week, began training at his academy in Hyderabad recently.

Saina took to Twitter to make the big announcement as she tweeted, "I m very happy to b back home and train in Hyderabad keep supporting friends"

I m very happy to b back home and train in Hyderabad keep supporting friends — Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 4, 2017

Saina had left Gopichand's academy and started training under Vimal Kumar 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 and Gopichand were not on talking terms.

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. 

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 re turned to train with Gopichand.

According to sources, Saina wants to stay in Hyderabad but things have changed a lot in the last three years. It could be difficult to fit her in the scheme of things as a number of shuttlers like PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap etc have the personal attention from Gopichand. 

In such a scenario, giving Saina the much-needed attention could be a tough ask on the part of the National coach. But the fact that the former England champion has a special place for Saina may make her comeback a bit easier.