The badminton events at the Rio Olympics 2016 kick off on Thursday and all seven Indian shuttlers will be in action in their respective Singles and Doubles matches at the Riocentro Pavillion.
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Some of the players like PV Sindhu, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa arrived in Brazil a week before competition and were even part of the opening ceremony while others like Saina Nehwal chose to come later.
On Wednesday, ahead of their respective first group games, an interesting development occurred.It is knowledge to all that Saina has her personal regime after she split with long-time coach Pullela Gopichand and decided to move to Bengaluru to train under Vimal Kumar and his support staff here.
However, on Wednesday, the two shuttlers, ranked 5th and 10th respectively in the world, were seen on the same side of the court with their respective coaches, Vimal and Gopichand on the sidelines, observing them keenly as they practised.
On several occasions in the past, both Saina and Sindhu have denied any sort of rift away from the court and maintained that their rivalry was strictly on-court. Both of them, in fact, played doubles at the 2014 Uber Cup as the second pairing after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa.
Sindhu will face off against laura Sarosi in her first match while Saina will take on Lohanny Vicente in her 1st match. Both have been placed in Group G and M respectively and will play their second group match on Sunday.
