For an edge over the other, Sindhu, Saina train separately

New Delhi, June 6

Fierce rivals on court, badminton stars Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu are training at separate academies of national coach Pullela Gopichand ever since their Commonwealth Games summit clash in Gold Coast. Reason: neither player wants the other to get a whiff of her strategies and improvisations.
Gopichand is dividing his time between the two academies to train his most famous trainees. The development is a direct fallout of the CWG singles showdown in which Saina got the better of Sindhu in a gruelling contest.
“Sindhu was not comfortable training at the new academy. Since it is an individual sport, there will always be competition, so to hold on to her own tactics, she decided to train at the old academy after the Commonwealth Games,” said Sindhu’s father PV Ramana. “If they train together, both will be able to gauge each other’s weaknesses and also how fit the other is, what each is working on, what difficulties they are facing. It’s similar to how Saina had left the academy to train under Vimal Kumar and then she came back to the Gopichand academy after three years.”
Gopichand’s second training centre is about half a kilometre away from the old one. The players have been training at the new academy since it became operational a few years ago. Asked about Sindhu’s training schedule and how she is managing her sparring partners, Ramana said: “Gopi trains her in morning from 7 to 8:30 and then two Indonesian coaches make her play. Then there are junior boys and doubles players. So I don’t think sparring is a problem.
“As a sportsperson, you know what you want after a certain level. They are all mature players now, they know their mistakes and evolve their strategies.”
The Gold Coast loss was Sindhu’s third successive against Saina, following defeats at the 2017 National Championship final and 2018 Indonesia Open quarterfinal.