Saina Nehwal On Split With Pullela Gopichand: 'People Thought We Were Fighting'

News18

18-05-2025

Last Updated:
Saina Nehwal revealed her 2011 split with coach Pullela Gopichand was to improve her game, not due to conflict.
Former World No. 1 Indian Badminton star Saina Nehwal has finally broken her silence on her 2011 brief split with popular coach Pullela Gopichand. Nehwal said while 'people thought they were fighting', her decision was purely based on improving her game, which she thought would be better possible with coach Baskar Babu.
Nehwal's decision was made after setbacks at the World Championships in Paris in August 2010 and again at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in November. Still, she was India's biggest Badminton name at the time and the news of the split sent shivers down the ecosystem.
'In 2011, Baskar Babu sir had started to come to games plus we had a lot of good players coming in playing at a good level, both boys and girls," Nehwal said in an interview with The Lallantop on YouTube. 'I think Gopi sir started to feel that he had to oversee a lot of these players, while I was already World No. 2. When you visit outside, you see there are multiple coaches for different players and categories. In India, the game was only growing at the time and for everyone, Gopi sir was the only coach. I was 20-21 years old, the performances weren't coming, sir didn't have time either," she added.
'Coaches and parents would tell you that patience will bring the performances back but I used to feel something was missing. I thought I could become World No. 1. But somehow in those last few months, maybe I couldn't do the training that sir wanted to give me or I couldn't show that in my performances… so I thought I should take coaching with Baskar Babu sir for a few months and see if something changes," Nehwal added.
She also said that at the same time, India had started recruiting some coaches from Indonesia, whose individual training helped here game too. Nehwal also said that, unlike the public perception, Gopichand wasn't 'the kind of person' to fight and was accepting of her decision.
'That's when people thought they have fought or something. But for, it was just that I wasn't improving and instead losing to the players I had beaten only one or two months ago. I started to feel why it was happening, was there any shortcoming in our discussions? Somewhere it was in my mind that we didn't have too much time because girls' careers peak at 25-26. I was having doubts that if I don't change now, I might not get the results. I told sir and he's not the kind of person who'll fight with you. He said, 'Sure, try if it helps. I am always with you if you need any kind of advice,'" Nehwal said.
First Published:
May 18, 2025, 18:07 IST