"I am trying my level best to come back": Indian shuttle Saina Nehwal

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 11 : Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal expressed confidence in trying her best to get back into the sport as she continues to recover from injury.
Olympic and World Championships medalist shuttler Saina Nehwal is experiencing inflammation in her knees, which has kept her out of the competitive sport. Due to this injury, she missed out on the recently concluded 19th Asian Games.
As she continued on the journey of returning to the court, Saina also became the mentor of 'Badminton Pros' alongside Badminton players Parupalli Kashyap and Gurusai Dutt.
"It's nice of my fans to love me so much. I have been playing for so many years. I love the sport so much and I am trying my level best to come back and figure out the niggles. I really want to play my best and do really well at the highest level," Saina said while speaking to ANI.
She further added, "I would like to congratulate Vijay and Anup Sridhar. They are doing a fantastic job. You need to have a lot of courage to open so many centres. They love the sport so much, they are thinking about the upcoming kids who really want to play the sport and don't have so many opportunities. Having centres here and there, they can go and practice there and fulfil their dream. Everyone nowadays asks me that Saina Didi, we want to become a champion. Of course, I can't say that there is no infrastructure or Coaching or proper trainers or physios. Now the things are changing. I and Kashyap decided that we should be supporting Vijay and Anup in any way. I am happy that I came to help the kids to achieve big. It's an opportunity for me to learn a lot from the young kids."
Indian Badminton player Parupalli Kashyap talked about his plans to get into full-time coaching in the future as he wants to help the youngsters develop.
"This seems the most likely thing I want to do in future, getting into full-time coaching. I am very passionate about this and I want to see how I can help the kids. Even as a player I feel good about giving advice and helping my colleagues or juniors. That is my nature. It seems very likely that I'm going to do coaching in future. This seems a very nice thing to do because initially, at least mentoring is showing up at different centres once in a while, giving advice, and at the back end working on understanding how can we improve. It is a learning process for me because we started in 1996-97, I don't clearly remember what the first few classes I did. I'm sure my input will help," Kashyap said.
He also talked about the change of mindset in people about badminton over a period of time as Indian shuttles are playing at the top events and clinching medals.
"Earlier, participating was a big thing. No one believed that we could make it to the later stage of the tournament. Then quarter finals was a big thing when I was in the national team. Then, Saina started winning tournaments and everyone believed that now we can win tournaments. Eventually, quarter finals was not good enough, no one was feeling happy about it. People started winning. Now we have world number ones. We have a constant medalist in every major event. So everyone is aspiring to do that. Mindsets have changed. Once the mindset changes your beliefs, your thoughts are also towards winning and winning medals and performing at the highest level. The mindset has changed across India. Also because of the money coming into the sport, especially the top players are doing well for themselves. That way parents are also encouraged to push children in the sport, seeing the fame, the popularity which the players are getting at the top level," Kashyap added.
Indian Badminton player Gurusai Dutt also addressed the recent growth of badminton in the nation and said, "We have world number one in men's doubles. In men's singles, Prannoy was ranked number eight. Satwik-Chirag just won the Asian games. In women double's, we have in top 16. There might have been probably a little slump in the women singles, but yes there's a lot of potential. I have been seeing around the country since I'm coach now. There is potential surely. There are young girls coming up. Of course there's been some gap, but I strongly believe that we can see some women singles coming up as well. I can't say that they would achieve what Sindhu and Saina have achieved, but I would say that we will have a good women singles in the future."