How Vimal Kumar helped Saina Nehwal in making a stunning comeback

Saina Nehwal in action at the Badminton World Championships

Someone has rightly said “a good teacher is like a candle burning, It consumes itself to light the way for others”. Today the entire nation is celebrating Teachers Day in memory of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's who was born on September 5, 1888. He was a renowned philosopher and India's Second President. From Science to Literature and from Meditation to Sports, no field in the entire world is complete without a teacher.

Indian badminton queen Saina Nehwal is blessed to have a coach and teacher in the form of Vimal Kumar. Not only has he helped the current World No. 1 in improving her tactics but also helped in build her confidence so that she can beat the best in the world of badminton. It’s only because of the efforts of this former chief coach of the Indian badminton that Saina is still playing this game.

Aged 25, this Hisar-born girl, who recently became the first Indian ever to reach the final of World Badminton Championships revealed a shocking fact about quitting the game last year. "I was thinking about quitting (last year) because I thought I was getting irritated with the kind of performances I was giving. I was not happy with the way I was playing. It was not happening, I was not finding out ways to win. It was getting challenging for me because I knew I was a world-class player," said the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in an interview.

At that very time Vimal Kumar came in as a blessing in disguise for Saina. He joined the Indian Uber Cup team and helped Saina in strengthing her skills and also got rid of her mental blocks that were threating to derail her career."It was a move from Hyderabad but I did it because I wanted to improve and I think it was a good decision. Vimal Sir's influence is the biggest change. I really want to thank him for spending so much time with me in the court and making me believe everyday that I am a champion, I can be number one.”

The major reason for Saina quitting Gopichand academy in Hyderabad and joining Vimal Kumar in Bangalore was, that with the rise of shuttlers like P.V Sindhu, H.S Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth, the former’s time was split between the top players and as a result she wasn’t being given the adequate time.

"Even physically I am feeling much better. It's because, when you get the personal attention you are naturally going to improve. The whole attention is on you. He is working on areas in which I am weak," Saina pointed out.

Saina’s performance under Vimal Kumar

Even though Saina officially joined Vimal Kumar in September 2014, she was taking his guidance from the Uber Cup in May. The result of training with him started to almost immediately as she didn’t lost a single match in that tournament. It was also the first time ever that the Indian eves won a bronze medal in this team tournament of badminton.

After almost a month, Saina grabbed the Australian Open Superseries title, her seventh Superseries title overall and first since December 2012. Enthusiast and overjoyed Saina continued her thrilling form as she clinched the China Open Superseries Premier title in November by thrashing Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the championship match.

Working with Vimal Kumar has certainly brought a change to Saina’s game

She successfully defended her Indian Open Grand Prix Gold title in January 2015 after defeating reigning World Champion Spanish shuttler Carolina Marin in the final. Riding on the pillars of success, this former World Junior champion from Hyderabad became the first Indian woman shuttler to reach the finals of All England Open Badminton Championships in March. She eventually faltered to Marin in the summit clash.

After almost 20 days, she did one better by winning the Indian Open Superseries. With the help of this victory, she became the first Indian women's player to be World No.1 in badminton. On 16th Aug 2015, Saina went down fighting to Carolina Marin again, in the final of World Badminton Championships held in Jakarta thus settling with the Silver.

It is just because of the selfless and dedicated efforts of Vimal Kumar, who is also the director of Prakash Padukone’s badminton academy that Saina is still the No. 1 women’s singles player in the world of badminton.

Future Aim

Saina Nehwal’s long term goal would be to win the gold medal at 2016 Rio Olympics. However, her next aim would surely be to win the Japan Open and Korea Open Superseries. In the opening round of Japan Open, she will take on the World No. 17 Thai ace Busanan Ongbumrungphan.

If she gets past That in the opener then she could well play compatriot and World No. 14 P.V Sindhu in the second round.