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Thursday, Jul 17, 2025
The world champion shuttler, who has been confined to her home in Hyderabad during lockdown, answered the questions of Malayala Manorama readers and a few sportspersons.
The withdrawal of former world No.1 Saina means there will be no Indian participation in the women's singles event at Odense as world champion P V Sindhu has already opted out.
World champion Sindhu, who won the opening game, lost to Japans' Sayaka Takahashi in the pre-quarterfinals.
The fifth seed Sindhu clawed back from a game down to notch up a 14-21, 21-15, 21-11 victory over Ohori.
Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games by Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta published by HarperCollins India throws light on the difficult period for both Saina and Gopi.
Tai Tzu-ying beat Sindhu 21-16, 21-16 in the quarterfinal, while Saina was no match for Carolina Marin.
Kidambi Srikanth, Sameer Verma and H S Prannoy faced crushing defeats in their opening rounds, while Saina Nehwal, India's lone contender in women's singles, also failed to clear the first hurdle.
In an upcoming book 'Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games', Gopichand spoke about the difficult times, also corroborated by Saina's husband and former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap.
However, it was curtains for the India men as both Sameer Verma and H S Prannoy crashed out of the tournament.
Gopichand, in a chapter titled 'Bitter Rivalry' of an upcoming book 'Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games', revealed how miserable he felt when Saina decided to join Padukone's academy to train under Vimal Kumar in Bengaluru.
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