"I didn’t know who Prakash Padukone was. I was more interested in cricket or hockey. I wanted to become a doctor as my father (Harvir Singh) was a scientist,’’ revealed Saina Nehwal, the 2012 London Olympic bronze medallist, during the inauguration of the Kotak-Gopichand badminton training centre at Gachibowli here on Saturday.

Nehwal said it was her father’s friend who asked her to try her hand in badminton. She began to play the game, but she was still apprehensive over whether she could succeed as till then, there was no champion in Olympics or the Worlds. “But when Gopichand won the All-England Championship [in 2001], I got the belief we can do it in badminton.’’