A BITTER RIVALRY

It was P.V. Sindhu’s bronze medal at the 2013 World Championships that made things more and more complicated for Gopi. By this time people around Saina [Nehwal] had started to influence her, suggesting that Gopi wasn’t giving her undivided attention anymore. She was often left to fend for herself. After losing the World Championships in 2013, she went on a downward spiral.

“Saina felt Gopi sir was hers and hers alone. It was a very different bond that the two of them had. For years Gopi had worked on her. All of a sudden Gopi had a lot of players to look after and Sindhu had started to show good results. Again, I don’t blame either Saina or Gopi for the fallout. I had started to see things go wrong and did my best to control the negativity. But I was helpless,” said [Parupalli] Kashyap.

“Each time Gopi tried to discipline Saina, she would take it as an affront,” he added. “She wasn’t willing