City’s badminton wunderkind vows to better historic bronze medal
PV Sindhu shows off her World Championship bronze medal alongside her mother Vijaya as she arrives at the Hyderabad airport on Tuesday. (Photo: P. Surendra )
Hyderabad: For long, she’s been regarded the natural successor to the throne on which Saina Nehwal currently has a tenuous hold. But with her bronze medal-winning effort at the World Championships last week, young P.V. Sindhu took giant strides towards making the crown her own.
Sindhu, with a second consecutive Worlds bronze, had become India’s first shuttler to win multiple medals at the event, and that too less than a month after claiming bronze at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. And the 19-year-old Hyderabadi was deservedly proud of her achievement, when she returned home on Tuesday.
“I’m very happy with the bronze,” Sindhu said, flashing her 1,000-watt smile at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy. “It is a very big tournament, and I’m glad I won bronze two years in a row. I will do better next year.”
Chief national coach Gopichand was all praise for his young ward.
“It was a fantastic effort. It was disappointing that she lost in the semifinals, but she had already notched up back-to-back wins against top players. Winning two medals at the Worlds is unprecedented. She lost to the eventual world champion (Carolina Marin of Spain), which is small consolation, but I’m very proud of her. I hope she does better the next time,” Gopi said.
Sindhu said she was slightly disappointed that she didn’t go on to win silver or gold, but is determined to not let that bog her down.
“Carolina played really well. I committed a few simple errors. We can’t put in 100 per cent in every single match. As well as we play, it’s not as if the other players are any less. What I should do is make note of the mistakes I made and rectify them,” Sindhu said.
About whether she felt any pressure during the match, Sindhu said: “I don’t know about pressure, but you have to maintain a positive frame of mind, especially if the match is going against you.”
Gopi said: “She is only 19, and she has already done well in several big tournaments. There are areas she can work on, and that will be our focus ahead of the Asian Games.”
As a former player and coach, Gopi admitted he was disappointed about the performances of the other Indian shuttlers, but did not want to dwell on what happened.
“It is a bit disappointing. I think there were very close matches. Srikanth played some good matches. Kashyap could have won his match. The doubles players played really well. Overall, as a team, we could have done better. But we need to focus on doing well in the future and not on the past.”
( Source : dc )
Next Story
