Mumbai: Former All-England champion and national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand says India's emerging talent is bridging the gap with the world's top players.
"All of them are ranked pretty high and have had good wins in their careers," the 2001 winner at Birmingham said. "We have players like Saina Nehwal who has beaten higher ranked players consistently. All it takes is two good days and you are in the quarter-finals, really," Gopichand said ahead of the All-England open, which begins on Wednesday.
Anup Sridhar, at 49 the third highest-ranked Indian in the world, reached the semi-finals of the German Open last week with victories over German world number 20 Bjoern Joppien, 23rd ranked Korean Park Sung-hwan and Denmark's world number 32 Kasper Oedum.
The 23-year-old lost to China's world number one Lin Dan 21-14, 21-12 in the last four.
Three Indians are in the top-50 of the men's rankings while 16-year-old Nehwal is 32nd among women, with Trupti Murgunde 18 places further down.
Gopichand expects his players to start making it to the quarter-finals more consistently in tournaments around the world.
"The bright side is that they have fought and lost to higher-ranked players in close matches," says Gopichand, who took over as national coach last May.
Gopichand is only the second Indian to have won the prestigious All-England, doing so 21 years after Prakash Padukone achieved the feat in 1980.
Nehwal made headlines last year when she captured the Philippines Open after beating German top seed and world number four Xu Huwaien in the last eight and then Malaysian Julia Wong in the final.
Nehwal and men's world number 27 Chetan Anand are in the main draw of the All-England while Sridhar, Nikhil Kanetkar and P Kashyap will start in the qualifiers on Tuesday.
Gopichand has high hopes for Nehwal. "She is very strong, especially mentally. Everybody gets chances to win, but taking it on the given day is what is important," he said. "Saina goes for it."
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