Badminton | ‘India Open postponement is disheartening’

P. Kashyap says Saina is nearing full fitness, despite being troubled by niggles

April 21, 2021 09:20 pm | Updated December 05, 2021 08:53 am IST - HYDERABAD

Ready... but: Saina and Kashyap hope that atleast the Malaysian and Singapore Opens will be held on schedule.

Ready... but: Saina and Kashyap hope that atleast the Malaysian and Singapore Opens will be held on schedule.

The postponement of the India Open, which was scheduled to be held in New Delhi from May 11 and is an Olympics qualifying tournament, is disheartening and shows that the players’ interests are not taken care of, said P. Kashyap, husband of Saina Nehwal.

Helpless

“It is really upsetting that the Delhi event is postponed. We are helpless.

“We have serious doubts whether anyone cares for the players when they take these decisions,” the 34-year-old Kashyap told The Hindu here on Wednesday.

Kashyap, who also dons the role of a mentor to Saina besides pursuing his own career, said the India Open, along with Malaysian and the Singapore Opens, are the last three Olympics qualifying events and now players like Saina and Srikanth are left with only the last two events.

“Our calculations were that if Saina were to make it to the quarterfinals in two of the three tournaments, her chances of making the Olympics cut were bright,” Kashyap said. “Now, it has come to two out of two. It is not going to be easy and I strongly believe no one cares about the players getting a fair chance of qualifying for the Games.

“Exactly for this reason, I feel the All England Championships early this year should also have been treated as a qualifying event.”

Kashyap added that Saina is nearing full fitness, despite being troubled by niggles which are taking a long time to heal.

Tough phase

“It has been a very tough last two years for her. Because of the pandemic, the conditions are bad.

“But when IPL and tennis can go on, a way should be found out to ensure the Olympics qualifying events are held,” he said.

“Now all we can do is to hope that at least the Malaysian and Singapore Opens will be held on schedule.”

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.