Saina Nehwal has decided to do a ghar wapsi. Back to where her tryst with destiny in international badminton all began. After a three-year-long hiatus, Saina will return to train with national coach Pullela Gopichand in Hyderabad.

In a series of tweets on Monday afternoon, breaking the news, Saina wrote: “For a while I’ve been thinking about moving my training base back to the Gopichand academy and I had a discussion about this with Gopi sir and I am really thankful to him for agreeing to help me again. At this stage in my career I think he can help me achieve my goals.”

Many credit the badminton star’s homecoming to the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy to the ice that was broken in Glasgow during the world championship. After watching the 110-minutes-long final between Nozomi Okuhara and PV Sindhu, Saina walked up to Gopichand and jocularly told him, “Mera petrol khatam ho gaya dekhte dekhte (I ran out of fuel watching their match).” Given that Saina’s sudden exit three years ago left many in Gopi’s core team very displeased, this was the first sign that an effort was being made to repair a fractured relationship.

Gopi is cagey about revealing too many details about what he describes was a “private conversation” between Saina and him. “She told me she wants to come back and asked me, can you take me back?” he says.

Ironically, Saina’s exit and entry have been timed with the world championship. She parted ways with Gopichand after a quarterfinal exit in the 2014 edition in Denmark and started training with Vimal Kumar in Bengaluru. It was a stint that saw several ups and downs. While Saina became World number 1 under Vimal’s tutelage and also won the silver at the world championship in 2015 and bronze in the 2017 edition, her injury during the Rio Olympics that needed her to go under the knife meant much of 2016 was lost recuperating from surgery.

During the time she was away, Saina has seen Sindhu take her place as the reigning queen of Indian badminton. It was almost as if Gopi wanted to prove a point that if Saina chose to walk away, the conveyor belt at his academy had the mettle to produce another champion player. Saina’s decision to return to her alma mater is an acknowledgement of that feat.

At the same time, Saina also realises that much has changed since she left the Academy. Over the last year, in particular, a batch of players that includes Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma has matured and is conquering the world at different Super Series events. This means no other centre in India can provide Saina with the kind of sparring talent that is available at the Gopichand Academy. Any player who has made it big on the world stage will tell you that he or she is always hungry for quality practise sessions.

Add to that the induction of Indonesian coach Mulyo Handayo into the Gopichand Academy. The man famous for coaching former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat, Handayo has transformed the way the players were training so far, focusing on endurance, fitness and staying power on the court. That played a huge part in Sindhu playing such a long match in Glasgow, without developing cramps.

Having Mulyo as the man in-charge helps as Gopichand is now cast more in the role of a mentor to the players. After Saina’s exit, Gopi had told me that every player feels insecure if he or she sees him spending more time with another player. That is what led to Saina feeling that she was not getting the attention she deserved, with many more players vying for Gopi’s time.

Another big reason appears to be the loneliness factor, the dreariness of being away from home. The last three years were the first time in her 17 years of playing the game that she was away from Hyderabad for such a long duration. “I am very happy with the decision. Saina also feels she will get more freedom to play and flourish,” says Harvir Singh, Saina’s father.

Former India doubles player Jwala Gutta concurs. “You miss home and she has been away for three years from Hyderabad.”

Her 2014 parting was incidentally the second time Saina had moved away from Gopichand. In 2011, she had started training with Bhaskar Babu, who was a coach at the Gopichand Academy. Three months later, she returned to Gopi, regretting her decision.

It is not just Saina who stands to gain from the return. Gopichand, who has succeeded in creating an ecosystem where badminton singles players do well, would have realised that Saina even at 27 has enough hunger in her to sign off on a high. It is this desire that Gopi would like to tap into, to carve out many more Glasgows, where two Indians – Sindhu and Saina – found place on the podium.

How much of badminton does he see in Saina now, I ask Gopichand. “I am positive she will do well. We will figure it out,” he says.

A couple of years ago, on a TV show, I had asked Gopi if he saw a Saina versus Sindhu rivalry developing. He had replied saying he would prefer it to be a case of “Saina and Sindhu”. With this gifted student making a return to his court ahead of Teacher’s Day, Gopichand could not have asked for more.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @Iamtssudhir.