“No Plans For Coaching, It’s The Toughest Job”: Saina Nehwal On Her Future

Olympic and World Championships medalist shuttler Saina Nehwal has said that she is experiencing inflammation in her knees, which has kept her out of the competitive sport. “Three to four months ago I was playing Singapore Open. My knees and cartilage started to hurt. So, consulted a doctor and my physio is also working on it. My knees showed inflammation. I do not want to play half-hearted,” said Saina at the press conference in Gurugram at Global Race 2023 on Wednesday.

She also said that she is not open to coaching in future, calling it the “toughest job”.

“Not thinking about coaching. For me playing is easy and coaching is the toughest job,” she added.

Nehwal is missing out on Asian Games due to an injury.

Notably, Saina has not been in good form in 2020s. Last year, she played 13 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour tournaments and only reached quarterfinals once in Singapore Open. She bowed out of other tournaments mostly in first round.

This year as well, she has played six BWF World Tour tournaments, getting three first-round exits and three second-round exits.

She is currently ranked at world number 55 in women’s singles competition.

Her last BWF World Tour title win was in January 2019, when she won the Indonesia Masters.

Indian badminton team for Asian Games 2023

Men’s singles: HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth (individual/team), Lakshya Sen and Mithun Manjunath (team)

Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty and Dhruv Kapila/MR Arjun (individual/team)

Women’s singles: PV Sindhu and Ashmita Chaliha (individual/team), Anupama Upadhyaya and Malvika Bansod (team)

Women’s doubles: Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly and Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto (individual/team)

Mixed doubles: Rohan Kapoor /N Sikki Reddy and Sai Pratheek K/Tanisha Crasto.