Srikanth is a fighter and Saina is amazing, says Pullela Gopichand

New Delhi Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand has lavished praise on K Srikanth after his India Open triumph describing him as a fighter with a great range of strokes but said he still needs to improve mental aspects to win more laurels for the countrySrikanth edged out world no 6 Viktor Axelsen 1821 2113 2112 in the final to clinch his maiden India Super Series and Gopichand said consistency will be the key to his success in the coming daysI think consistency will be his key Weve seen him play well When you win you normally look invincible he saidTalking from a coachs perspective somebodys winning matches and suddenly they become slow and then they look as ordinary as anybody From that perspective its good Hes got that ability to fight and hes got a great range of strokes that can help him change the tide of the game very quickly We need to work on the mental aspect and physical aspects Theres still some way to go before we could be winning everything he addedElaborating further on Srikanths game Gopichand said He has a big smash good net hand and with the range of strokes he has it makes him very good at the end points Because he has those elements of surprise all he needs to do is create the opening and when he does he has a big one to round it up and follow it up really well Having said that we also have H S Prannoy RMV Gurusaidutt Ajay Jayaram I think all of them have good strengthKidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal Pic AFPBefore Srikanth scooped his trophy new world no 1 Saina Nehwal had already clinched her maiden womens singles title at the India Open after four years Gopichand said it was a dream come true for him to see Srikanth and Saina bringing double delight to India yesterday at the Siri Fort Sports ComplexIts fantastic Last few days have been great for Indian badminton Im extremely happy he said When we started off it was a dream Today its a reality It couldve been better With H S Prannoy knocking out Viktor Axelsen RMV Gurusaidutt also had his chances against Xue Song We couldve had three players in the semis Having said that theyre all young There is still time and its a great beginning and we hope to continue with our successAsked about Sainas rise to the number one status Gopichand said Fantastic Last few years have been great for her And I think to reach this ranking is amazing for Saina badminton and for sport in generalI think she is playing well moving well With whatever shes doing shes comfortable with it For someone who leds by example Gopichand said he is still learning as a coach and a better supporting staff will help India to get more accoladesIm learning as well Since when I started coaching there was no one in top 100 Suddenly there were few There was one Saina in the top 5 and P V Sindhu Srikanth Parupalli Kashyap and Prannoy there Then you have Guru and all hanging behind them and then B Sai Praneeth Gopichand saidWe need a larger group of coaches Need some more committed work to be done We need more personal attention People like Kiran as a physio have worked relentlessly in thelast few years We need support staff which is solid Then well get thereNot many people have the experience to tell me so that I can learn from them as well because not many people have these problems But conditions are such and Im working on them and hopefully we will come back next year with some answers he addedWhile India have done really well in the singles category doubles remains an area of concern and Gopichand said there are some fundamental issues in the doubles competition Asked if he is planning to hire someone for doubles Gopichand said Yeah but there are fundamental issues We do not have still systems running across in the country Look at the Chinese team or the Korean or Japanese The coach is incharge of everythingHere unfortunately that freedom and system is not there Unless that system is not there in place no coach can help us We do not have enough people under the age of 18 who take doubles in the first place So unless you have a bunch of 30 kids playing doubles we wont be able to produce players for the next 68 years We need proper structures to be made We need proper effort decisions to be made Decisions need to be hard solid you can not leave to various diktats of people to decide which route to goPeople who have the knowledge of the sport should sit together and decide There might be 3 or 4 different ways of doing it We dont have to find a perfect system I think its just important to put a system in place put rules in place and then everything will flow he saidAsked about Srikanth Gopichand said He is a complete player but there are certain areas that need to be worked upon His tosses were sloppy Every player will have certain strengths and weaknesses Its important to win your matches on your strengths and not lose your matches on your weaknesses Srikanth is smart enough to know when change is needed