Happy with Saina's competitive attitude, she will get back to her best form come January end: Vimal Kumar

SAINA NEHWAL'S COACH VIMAL KUMAR is confident that she can get back to her best form by end of January. He also stressed upon that, at present he is not worried about the results.

"She is definitely not back to her best and has some way to go before she can aspire to win big tournaments again. She needs some more time, may be in terms of physical and strength aspects in which she needs to improve," said Vimal while talking to PTI.

The former World No. 1 who made a comeback at the China Open after recovering from a knee surgery has been fighting hard to get back to competing days. At the Hong Kong Open and currently on going Macau Open she ended her campaign in the quarter-finals. Few matches saw her coming from behind to win the matches.

But as Vimal says, there is a lot of work to be done.

"After Macau Grand Prix Gold there's nothing for her till end-January -- the Syed Modi memorial Grand Prix Gold (in Lucknow). Of course PBL (Premier Badminton League) is there (in the first part of January) in which she will play, being one of the big names. But it lasts two weeks and is not a very high intensity competition, in the real sense."

"In another 4-6 weeks (she should be back to top level) once she starts high intensity training. She has enough time when she enters that (Modi memorial) competition and if nothing goes wrong, from end-January onwards she will be a strong contender."

"When she comes back (from Macau) we will have to see when she can start high intensity training. I have given all power to the trainer. Their session comes first and on-court badminton comes second. I have told him to ensure that the leg is good. There's enough time. She can do good training and come back."

But the coach is happy at the way her leg has been responding since the surgery.

"Physically she needs to get better, but the most important thing is her leg is holding fine. Today also she struggled. They are all steady players, playing long rallies and the shuttles (in Macau) are slow."

"She is someone who thrives on competition. She wanted to know where she stands once she did not feel any pain. When she came back (to the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bengaluru after surgery) for training routine she felt tiredness but her leg was holding well," he said.

"When she says I am okay, it's her body. She's a grown up girl, one of the top players in the world, and knows her body. This I learned from Prakash -- to take responsibility. She said she felt good and wanted to compete."

"Nothing is going wrong with her leg. I am not worried about end results now. There's a lot of scope for improvement and she is not yet at that high level to push those top players. The main thing is 4-5 top players are not there (for one reason or another). The top two Chinese women have retired and Li Xuerei is injured. Ratchanok (Intanon) is injured and Carolina is also not there. It's good for the next line of players to push and she should just think she is in the next line of players."

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