Former All England champion Pullela Gopichand with students of Mahadevi Birla Girls Higher Secondary School in Calcutta on Friday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Pullela Gopichand has some simple advice for Saina Nehwal for her big match on Saturday: “Just keep your cool... Don’t get weighed down by the occasion.”

World No. 32 Saina will take on top seed Wang Yihan of China in the final of the World Junior Badminton Championship in Incheon City, near Seoul.

“She called me soon after reaching the final… she was very excited,” Gopichand, now a national coach, said here on Friday.

Describing the 16-year-old’s rise as “phenomenal”, the ace shuttler said Saina needs to be “groomed” properly to handle the sustained pressure of international competitions.

“We are planning to provide her with a sophisticated support staff as early as in January. She needs a physical trainer and a dietician… a sports psychologist also. These are important things to survive the pressure. We will arrange all this for her with the support of Mittal Foundation,” Gopichand informed.

He reiterated that the players need more exposure. “We need sponsors. We are living in a vicious cycle. If we can’t make the sport popular, sponsors will go away. To maintain the consistency, we must get a feel of international competition. Saina is now doing well, but we need more Sainas to make us a force to reckon with internationally,” he said.

Gopichand, however, didn’t sound too optimistic about India’s chances in the Asian Games. “I’m not saying we can’t win medals. But we will confront real tough opponents like Indonesia, China and South Korea,” he said.