Saina thanks coach ,Kashyap after historic bronze feat

Mumbai : Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal scripted history at the Asian Games 2018 by becoming the first Indian woman to clinch a medal in women’s singles badminton. She bagged bronze after losing her semifinal clash against Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying who eventually went on to bag the gold medal after defeating Saina’s compatriot PV Sindhu in the final. After her historic feat, Saina thanked her coach Pullela Gopichand, her teammate Parupalli Kashyap and the physios for their support. Saina kicked-off her Asian Games campaign on a confident note by winning her opening encounter comfortably against Indonesia’s Fitriani before flooring Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the quarterfinals to assure herself a medal. In the semis, she was no match to World number 1 Tai and went down fighting against her settling with a bronze. Despite the defeat, she became the first ever Indian female shuttler to win a medal at the Games before Sindhu claimed silver. She took to Twitter to thank her coach Gopichand for all the hard work and the support that he had put behind her to help her finish on the podium. She also expressed her gratitude towards her support staff and thanked Kashyap for his valuable inputs throughout the tournament. “I would like to thank Gopi Sir for all the hardwork and support … also @parupallik for giving me great match inputs and for helping me in sessions before the #AsianGame2018 … lot of efforts of Physios would like to thank @ArvindDNigam4 and Kiran challagundla sir,” Saina wrote on Twitter.