Saina, Sindhu Train Separately

Hyderabad: Fierce rivals on the court, badminton stars Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu are training at separate academies of national coach Pullela Gopichand ever since their epic Commonwealth Games (CWG) summit clash in Gold Coast, eager to ensure that neither of them gets a whiff of the other's strategies and improvisations.

Both are still under the aegis of national coach Pullela Gopichand, who is dividing his time at two of his academies to train his most famous proteges.

The development is a fall-out 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," according to 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. It is similar to how Saina had left the academy and trained under Vimal Kumar and then she again came back to the Gopichand academy after three years," the volleyball Arjuna awardee said.

Gopichand's second training centre is about half-a-kilometre away from the PGBA. 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," he said.