Hyderabad: The only bright spark in a dismal campaign for India’s shuttlers at home was the hope to see the mixed doubles pair Jwala Gutta and Valiyaveetil Diju reaching the final of Indian Open badminton tournament going on in Hyderabad.
But the second seeds could not cash in on the vociferous home support and lost. However, the national coach doesn't seem to be really worried.
“There have been some good performances espacially from the junior players. So, I won't say I am very happy but it is not disappointing either,” says national coach Gopi.
India's biggest hope was world number nine Saina Nehwal but an error prone Saina crashed out in the quarters to eventual finalist Wong Julia Pei.
After scalping the big names last year, Saina has struggled at the beginning of the season she blames it on a layoff due to injury
“It is a part of life and I did play at so many tournaments and did excellent in so many of them. It was a great year and in fact the starting of the year was very good, I played quarter finals in Malaysian Open. It was going on very well but I had to stop playing for some days as I had a very bad injury,” says Saina.
Though Gopi insists that there is a silver lining despite the defeats, he feels Indian badminton is on the threshold of a major breakthrough.
“Yes, these are still not the winning performances but at least this question is arising that the Indians are capable of winning and why are they not winning,” says Gopi.
Now, the next big ticket event on the agenda is the world championship in Hyderabad in August, where Gopi's words would be put to test.
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