RIO DE JANEIRO -- In June, at the Australian Open Super series in Sydney, PV Sindhu lost her first round match to South Koreas Kim Hyo Min in straight games.Min was the 40th ranked player in the world. It was an insipid performance from Sindhu and came at the back of a year that had seen her produce a string of underwhelming results. Her win-loss ratio was 23-13. She was playing okay, but for Pullela Gopichand, okay has never been acceptable. Okay means average. Okay means mediocrity.?When she lost the first round at the Australian open we decided whatever happens we should give the Olympics our best shot, Gopichand says in his signature low-pitched, measured voice. And she responded.By itself, that is the kind of throwaway banal quote athletes and their coaches hurl in the direction of journalists working on tight deadlines. But when Gopichand says they decided to give the Olympics their best shot and that Sindhu responded, it implies a brutal training regimen in the two months before they would board a plane to Rio.Sindhu was asked to surrender her phone and give up eating all junk food. The coach and student woke up every morning before the first ray of sunlight, and trained. And trained. And then trained some more. And did it all over again the next day.While Gopi was chiseling Sindhu the badminton player, he was also working on Sindhu the 21-year old, who is, well...21.She as a person is an extrovert, very friendly, loves people will do anything for the people whom she likes, he says. And that is a challenge as a sportsperson because you want somebody to be really focused, put their head down but when you tell her something she will definitely do that. So she has these different personalities which you are definitely struggling with, she needs to find herself and when she does that she will be even better.All athletes have switches that only a select few around them know how to flip on. In the fascinating documentary Serena, a fly on the wall account of her incredible 2015 season that ended in a failed quest for the calendar Grand Slam, we get an illuminating look into the method of her coach Patrick Mouratoglou.Mouratoglou makes little notes on each of her opponents at the US Open and ends them with a comforting personal message. One of the most successful tennis players of all time needs to hear that voice as she heads into each match of this quest and Mouratoglou knows just what to say and how much to say. Serena tells us how Mouratoglou gets her and that they are so in tune with each other.Gopi first set eyes on Sindhu as a 10-year old back in 2005. She stood out among her peers. Her parents were volleyballers and Sindhu was genetically well served. At Gopis academy in Hyderabad, many wide-eyed kids with eager parents would train, keen to flower under the tutelage of man who had won the All-England championships.By 2010, having made a successful transition from top player to respected coach, Gopi was spending considerable amount of time with her on a daily basis. He had identified the qualities of a top level athlete but as a teacher, Gopi was torn.It is tough because you have to pick from among your kids and you need to pick one for special care, he explains. That is quite a sick job anyway.To believe that she could actually be the one who could put us on the international stage and take the sport up a notch higher and to give what is best to her so that neither she or I should feel that there was a talent which deserved more attention and I didnt give it to her.It did not take long for that talent to start making rapid strides. At 18, Sindhu won bronze at the World Championships in Guangzhou. No Indian womens singles player had done so earlier. A year later in Copenhagen, she stunningly produced an encore and remains to this day the only Indian to have won two World Championships medals.But despite those early incisions on the circuit, Sindhus career had not quite taken off. She circled around the top-10 in the rankings and won a few titles, but not even one among them is a Super Series, the elite level tournaments in the sport.Gopi smiles that Sindhu often wins matches he expects her to lose and then somehow goes down in matches he thinks she will win. Yet, fascinatingly, when she does suffer defeat, they engage in no post-mortem.What is important is that you ignore the mistakes and focus on the positives, he says. We hardly discuss the matches that she loses. She is someone I believe has a lot of ability in her game and the strokes she plays as well. Slowly we will see more of her as she gets more confident.While Sindhu was rising, another player in Gopis watch was already among the best in the world. In 2014, Saina Nehwal stomped off from the academy in Hyderabad. Gopi had nurtured Saina for ten years as she rose to the top of the world rankings.However, Sainas results had started to taper off and she felt she was not getting the individual attention she deserved as an elite player under Gopis watch. Their split created a media furore unlike any other witnessed in Indian badminton before. Even today, though his stoic demeanour gives little away, the wound from that episode is raw.I ask him if he is still hurt by that entire episode.?It is not a profession which is all good, it is quite stressful and unfortunately in our country we dont have systems in place that can set things right and show us a way forward, he says.We are very immature and hopefully it is time for all of us to sit together and build a system which ensures that people know what discipline is - players, coaches and administrators know what their responsibilities are and I think its important that all of us work towards ensuring that we dont go haphazardly based on hype and media and records to take decisions but based on systems and best policies.I prod a little more.?For a few seconds, Gopi munches over his response. He is a thoughtful man, not given to gusts of emotional outpouring. I have players who have the potential and I believe there is a lot they can achieve and I would focus on them.I think Saina is a great athlete. And what shes done for us, for badminton and for the country is fantastic and I hope she continues in the same way because to have two women gunning at the highest level is something we really love and possibly there will be a few more in the next few years.For now, though, the future - immediate or long term - is not on Gopis mind. He is exhausted.In Rio, two of his wards, Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth, who gave a real fright to double Olympic champion Lin Dan before bowing out in the quarterfinals, have given him reason to sit on the plane back home a satisfied man.Now, he just wants to get back to Hyderabad to family and friends. He offers an emphatic Yes when I ask if watching Sindhu on the podium felt better than winning the All-England all those years ago.If I do it (coaching) then I better do it well, Gopi says. Thats the way I look at it. But it is a tough job, it is stressful and discriminative in a way. It is not always a job without tension. It is a lot of work physically and mentally and it is a lot of stress as well. But these moments, to be able to be part of a group that can give happiness and pride to the entire country that kept me going and hopefully we should have many more results like these which are very important.This medal was very important for all of us and the nation. To be part of this great journey is something I am very grateful about. Today, we have accomplished something, and hopefully we have the fire and the energy to continue doing something for 2020. C.J. McCollum Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Cheap Portland Trail Blazers Jerseys . Sgt. 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MILWAUKEE -- Just before the start of the ninth inning, Braves first base coach Eddie Perez made Chris Carter aware that Milwaukee had accomplished a rare feat.The Brewers struggling hitters broke out to score in every inning they batted for the first time in franchise history, beating Atlanta 11-3 Thursday.It was the eighth time since 1961 a team has scored in each inning it hit during a nine-inning game, the Elias Sports Bureau said.I then looked up (at the scoreboard) and was like, `Oh yeah, we did score in every inning, Carter said. I didnt even notice that. Thats pretty cool. I dont think Ive ever seen that.The Brewers needed an RBI triple from Orlando Arcia with two outs in the eighth to score. Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte almost came up with a diving catch, but the ball skipped past him, allowing Jonathan Villar to come around from first base.We were talking about it in the dugout, Arcia said through a translator. I wasnt even thinking about it in my last at-bat. I was just trying to get a good pitch, put a good swing on it and try to get a hit.Carter hit a two-run homer in the first to put the Brewers on the board. Milwaukee took a 3-0 lead in the second when they tried a double steal. Manny Pina was tagged out between second and first, but Keon Broxton scampered home.Scooter Gennett and Hernan Perez hit solo homers in the third and fourth to help Milwaukee build a 6-0 lead for Matt Garza. The Brewers run in the fifth inning came on a two-out single by Gennett.Erick Aybar homered and Nick Markakis had an RBI single in the Atlanta sixth. Aybar also doubled and singled.The Brewers pulled away in the bottom half on a three-run double by Pina. Perez added a two-out RBI single in the seventh to keep the run of scoring in every inning alive.You dont see that look on the scoreboard ever, Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. Ive never seen it before.Garza (4-4) won his third straight start, allowing two runs and seveen hits in six innings.ddddddddddddve been say for a while that Ive just been waiting for my stuff to come back, Garza said. Its back. Ive been able to pitch like I have in the past. It is refreshing. It is a spot Ive worked real hard to get back to.Making his second start of the season, Roberto Hernandez (1-1) gave up five runs and seven hits in four innings.After scoring eight runs in the first three games of the series, the Brewers wound up with 14 hits.I dont think Ive been a part of that before, Braves left fielder Jeff Francouer said. It was tough. You want to tack on runs every inning and they were able to do that against us. When you let that happen, youre not going to win.SMOOTH TRANSITIONBy going 3 for 5, Brewers 3B Jonathan Villar is hitting .432 (16 for 37) since moving from shortstop to third base to allow top prospect Arcia into the lineup.ON THE BOARDPinas double gave him the first three-RBI game of his career. The 29-year-old was making his third start for the Brewers since being recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs on Aug. 1. He played five games with Kansas City over the 2011 and 2012 seasons.TRAINERS ROOMBraves: RHP Joel De La Cruz is hoping to be able to make his next start after leaving Wednesdays game with a right knee contusion.Brewers: OF Domingo Santana (right elbow soreness) will play his third rehab game with Class A Wisconsin on Thursday in Beloit. OF Ryan Braun was given the day off.UP NEXTBraves: RHP Mike Foltynewicz (5-5, 4.37 ERA) will face Washington for the first time in his career Friday. He limited the Cardinals to one run over six innings in his last start.Brewers: RHP Jimmy Nelson (6-11, 4.02 ERA) will look to snap out of a rut when he faces Cincinnati on Friday. After posting a 2.88 ERA in his first 11 starts, Nelson is 1-8 with a 5.40 ERA in his last 12. ' ' '
