It's been a great year for Indian badminton, says Gopichand

Mumbai : National badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand, today expressed happiness at the performance this year of Indian shuttlers and termed Kidambi Srikanth's feat of winning four Super Series titles as "phenomenal".

"It's been a great year. I think all the players have done well. At the beginning of the year if you had said this is what you would get this year, I would have taken it very happily," said Gopichand here.

"He's 24 and has many more years to compete. (With) Lee Chong Wei at 34 and Lin Dan at 33 (still playing), we can expect that he has 8-10 years of badminton left in him. What he has achieved is phenomenal. What he can achieve, considering his potential, is unbelievable," Gopichand gushed.

"Sindhu has been good - Super Series wins in the India Open and Korea and finals of the Super Series in Hong Kong and the World Championship (silver) medal. To come back after an Olympic year and, in the next year, perform like that and finish off as world no. 2 is good.

"She had problems with (Spain's Olympic champion) Carolina (Marin), she beat her; with (Japan's Akane), Yamaguchi, she beat her. She is improving as a player. I believe, the next year could be even better. She is just 22, young and has a lot of potential."He also said that Saina Nehwal, bronze medallist in the 2012 London Games who has moved back to Hyderabad from Bengaluru after the World Championships, is showing what she is capable of after her injury last year during the Olympics.

It's good that in the last few tournaments she had good performances - beating Carolina after a while and the match against Chen Yufei which she played. Overall she is showing that she is capable now. She needs to be fitter and also get back from her injury, as well as ensure she is physically stronger to win match after match," said Gopichand.

"Every two years we have these big events - whether it's Commonwealth Games, or Asian Games or the Olympics. We are hoping we will come out strongly. In 2014 there were good performances and hopefully we can better it.