Hyderabad: You might have had a phenomenal year, but you have to shrug it off as soon as you can because a new year beckons. Such is life for a sportsperson.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t bask in the glory of your achievements in the little time you get for yourself. And that is exactly what newly-crowned senior national badminton champion P.V. Sindhu is doing.
To get a perspective into this 18-year-old’s career, let’s take a look at how 2013 has played out for her — just 10 years after she picked up a badminton racquet. A bronze medal at the World Championships, two Grand Prix Gold titles, the Arjuna Award and finally, the national crown.
“Sure, 2013 has been a fantastic year. But I’m gearing up for fresh challenges. There are many tournaments coming up. I hope to have my best year yet,” Sindhu says.
Quite a tall order that, but Sindhu exudes casual confidence when she says, “I’m going to take it one tournament at a time. So I’m not looking at the Asian Games or even the Commonwealth Games. For now, my focus is only on the Malaysia Open Superseries (January 15 to 20).”
But the ‘asking list’ from Sindhu will be heavy. For example, no Indian has ever scored a win at the Malaysia Open Superseries in the last seven years and she needs to score the big wins to really cement her reign on the sport.
However, her back-up is strong. The lanky lass draws inspiration from Pullela Gopichand, her history-making badminton guru, and attributes much of India’s success in the sport to him.
“Several promising players — including the new men’s senior champion K. Srikanth — are products of Gopi Sir’s academy (in Hyderabad). It is a world-class training facility.
If we have seen so much success with only one such academy, imagine how much we can improve if more such academies were to come up across the country,” Sindhu adds.
Meanwhile, her own journey in badminton began well, because both parents were gifted sportspersons. Ramana and Vijaya, were ace volleyball players and she would often start her day accompanying dad for a spot of recreational badminton.
But Sindhu, then all of eight, discovered a keen interest in the sport and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
And now, in 2013, Sindhu is delighted — especially after winning “The World’s Bronze”. “It was a very special moment for me as no other Indian women’s singles shuttler has done it in the past.
It was because of this that I won the Arjuna Award, so winning the medal was the most memorable moment for me.”
After some more prodding, Sindhu says of the Arjuna Award: “It was a surprise. I never expected to win it, but yes, now that I’ve won it, I can say it’s an incredible feeling and I hope I win more prestigious awards.”
She means, of course, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting award. And the rate at which she is going, do not be surprised if Sindhu does lay her hands on it sooner rather than later.
