Tricky situation on Saina’s fitness: Vimal Kumar

Much like the badminton fraternity here on Thursday, coach Vimal Kumar is excited about the second edition of the Indian Badminton League, that gets under way on January 2 next year. But he has concerns over the fitness of his ward and the country’s top shuttler, Saina Nehwal.

The world no. 2 has had one of the best seasons of her career — including silver at the Worlds and All England Championships — before being pegged back by a string of early losses in Japan, Denmark and France in the past few weeks. Saina agreed recently that lack of fitness was the reason for her poor results.

On the day, Vimal admitted that Saina was yet to attain full fitness and that she had been playing tournaments through pain.

“She is facing some niggles. During the World Championship, she was in pain, especially an inflammation on the pubic bone area, and the pain radiated down to her groin area. She played on and that aggravated the injury.

“She has been taking treatment for a while now. There have been some weeks she was not being able to train well. Doctors have said it could even lead to hernia if proper care was not taken. Then she still has an ankle injury sustained earlier. So, there are a couple of issues she has to take care of,” Vimal said on the sidelines of the launch of the second edition of IBL here on Thursday.

This season being an Olympic qualification year, the former national champion said Saina could not afford to miss tournaments.

“She needs to maintain rankings, she needs to make certain appearances and play even if she ends up with some bad results which can affect her confidence. It’s a very tricky situation for her. In order to get a better seeding at the Olympics, she needs to be in the top-4,” he pointed out. Saina is currently getting ready for her next challenge, the China Open Super Series Premier in Fujjan from November 10.

IBL from January 2

The Badminton Association of India announced the return of the IBL, after a span of two years on a day brand owners and commercial partners in the league, Sporty Solutionz Pvt Limited, moved a fresh petition against the federation in the Delhi High Court to protect their intellectual property rights.

The event will be a 15-day affair from January 2 to 17, featuring six teams — with Chennai replacing Pune — battling it out in the $1 million competition.