It is a Privilege to Coach a Champion Like Saina Nehwal: Coach Vimal Kumar

One would be astonished to know that within two years of winning a bronze medal at the Olympics, India's badminton star, Saina Nehwal had wanted to quit badminton. Had Saina not found a mentor, a coach and a guiding light in Vimal Kumar she would have never been able to rise the pulpit at the World Championship in Jakarta.

Right after her Olympic success, her game had plummeted, from being the World Number 2 her ranking dropped down to Number 9 and success gave way to a series of disappointing failures. It was during those times the ace badminton player contemplated retirement till she found the mentor in Vimal Kumar. Saina doesn't hesitate to acknowledge the endeavor of coach Vimal Kumar and the entire coaching system in Bengaluru for her recent success. "I wasn't getting proper attention. My game saw a decline to such a level that I thought that either I should improve or I should quit,'' Saina had said. After her triumph in Jakarta she gushes about Vimal Kumar and heaps lavish praises on him.

On the other hand coach Vimal Kumar says, "I feel proud that I am getting an opportunity to coach a player like Saina. She has got tremendous work ethics. She needs to be consistent as far as winning is concern." However, Vimal doesn't hide the disappointment of Saina losing the final. Vimal says, "Saina could beat defending champion Carolina Marin but that's the way the sport is. It sometimes becomes so cruel that you can't do anything about it."

According to Vimal Kumar she played best against the Chinese opponent Wang Yihan. He says that it was like a final match of the tournament. Saina's record against the former world number one and Silver Medalist at the London Olympics was very one sided. Before this tournament, Saina beat Wang Yihan only a couple of times while she was beaten by the 5'10'' Chinese opponent nine times. Vimal says that Saina beat Wang in her own game and took many points even by targeting her body, which is quite tough at international level.

Vimal is particularly impressed by the composure that Saina showed in the world championships. He points out the third round match against the Japanese opponent Sayaka Takahashi where she displayed a fantastic game to beat the Japanese girl in straight games.  Vimal also points out that the playing condition in Indonesia was very difficult because of the crowd support. Vimal says,"Winning in these conditions is really commendable."

It's exactly one year to go for Rio Olympics and Saina is upbeat and confident, "Obviously I want to do better than my London Olympics' performance." But coach Vimal Kumar says that it's too far to think about Rio Olympics at this point of time.  He says that before Rio she has to go to Japan, play in the Euro Circuit and a lot of things have to be done to fine-tune Saina's game. He says, "We can talk about Rio but not before May 2016."