Sindhu trains at separate academy to shield her tactics from Saina, says father PV Ramana

Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu has been training at a separate academy belonging to national coach Pullela Gopichand since the Commonwealth Games, her father PV Ramana revealed.

The development is a direct fallout of the Gold Coast singles showdown in which Saina Nehwal got the better of Sindhu in a gruelling contest, according to PTI.

Gopichand is now dividing his time between two of his Hyderabad academies, which are half a kilometre apart, the report said. The Indian national team players have been training at the new academy since it became operational a few years ago.

“Sindhu was not comfortable training at the new academy,” Ramana told the news agency. “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.

He added, “If they train together, both will be able to gauge each other’s weaknesses and also how fit the other is, what each is working on, what difficulties they are facing. It is similar to how Saina had left the academy [in 2014] and trained under Vimal Kumar and then she again came back to the Gopichand academy after three years.”

Sindhu’s training session at the old Gopichand academy starts at 7 am in the morning with the national coach. From 8.30 am, she is trained by two Indonesian coaches, following which she spars with junior boys and doubles player, Ramana revealed.

Gopichand does not have any problem with shuttling between his two academies. “Everything is going well and the players are also doing quite well too,” he told the Times of India.

Sindhu will play the Malaysia Open later this month, followed by the Indonesia Open and Thailand Open next month. She will, however, skip the Singapore Open to train for the world championship in China before heading to the Asian Games, Ramana added.