New Delhi: Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu said Friday that she has been working on improving her fitness and defence in search of an elusive gold in the showpiece Badminton World Championships starting August 19 at Basel Switzerland.
PV Sindhu has been the most consistent performer in the World Championships in the last few years with two silver and as many bronze medals but a gold medal has still eluded her.
PV Sindhu had lost to Nozomi Okuhara of Japan and Carolina Marin of Spain respectively in the summit clash of the last two editions of the World Championships in 2017 and 2018.
Well will she be third time lucky then: “Well, I have trained hard and I hope I can do well. I have to perform well but there is no pressure,” PV Sindhu said.
“I have been working on my defence, physical fitness and also on-court skills. We do have all kinds of strokes but to improve we have to keep training. So I have to do it all the time to make myself perfect. It is also important to know which strokes to play at the right time as that helps,” Sindhu added.
Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi was the one player who stopped Sindhu twice with an aggressive game plan in the last two tournaments of the year in Indonesia and Japan. However, Sindhu doesn’t want to think about the Japanese as her biggest threat at the World Championships. “I don’t think so. I played well against her in Indonesia but she was good. She was attacking well and she is also a rally player. I was not surprised by her aggression. But then at times, luck doesn’t favour you,” pointed out Sindhu.
Sindhu, who has been seeded fifth in the World Championships, has received a bye in the first round and will open her campaign against either Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po or Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri. If she wins, Sindhu is likely to meet Beiwen Zhang of the USA in the third round while Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying is likely to wait for her at the quarterfinals. Sindhu asserted that none of the matches will be easy.
“It will not be easy from the first match itself. If you see the draw, I am playing a Chinese Taipei player and then Beiwen Wang, she is not an easy player and if I can win, I will be against Tai Tzu Ying in quarters. I have to focus on each match, because you never know,” Sindhu asserted.
Sindhu was all praise for her new Korean coach Kim Ji-hyun. “It has been good. I am happy with my performance. With Kim, I have a good communication and I hope to do well in World Championships,” Sindhu said.
“She pointed out a few mistakes that I was doing at the net, and overall, so I had to improve on that aspect. I have done that. Her mindset and thinking is different and she motivates me a lot. Every coach has a different approach and I got used to her quickly,” added the top Indian women’s shuttler.
PTI