Malaysia's Badminton great Rashid Sidek believes ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is currently struggling for form because of her injury and she needs to work on her fitness to get back to her best again.
London Olympics bronze medallist, Saina had to battle poor form and injuries last season as she didn't win a single title, but the Indian showed signs of a comeback when she started the new season with a win at the Syed Modi International tournament and Sidek said it is a slow process to get back into shape after an injury.
"Saina is not in good form, maybe because of injury," said the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bronze medallist.
"If a player is not fit, it affects performance. It takes time to pick up after injury. It is slow process to get back on top. One has to start from basic, one gets low on confidence," he said.
While Saina's form dipped, her younger colleague P Sindhu rose up the ladder with some stunning performance in world circuit. The 18-year-old from Hyderabad won the Grand Prix Gold title at Malaysia and Macau and also clinched the world championship bronze.
Asked what advise will he give to Sindhu, Rashid said: "Sindhu has to develop more physically. She has to be bit more in her physical shape. The Chinese players are all very strong, they play a lot of good rallies and she has to develop physically to tackle that."
Talking about the Indian male shuttlers, Sidek said: "There are so many players, men and women but K Srikanth impressed me a lot. He is an attacking player and I think he has the ability and quality to further go up in his career. But he also has to work on his fitness."
Sidek, the second youngest of the six brothers, was the coach of the Krrish Delhi Smashers for the inaugural edition of Indian Badminton League but he said he is not sure about coming back for the second edition, which will be held from September 30 to October 15.
"I am not sure about coming back as a coach in IBL. My contract was for one year. So lets see," he said.
