There’s never been any doubt about Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu’s talent. At the age of just 18, she went on to win the first of her two bronze medals at the World Championships in 2013. However, consistency had been a problem which she had been working on and the results were for all to see this year.
The 21-year-old created new history for Indian badminton by clinching the silver medal at the Rio Olympics and then built on it further by winning her maiden Superseries title at the China Open. Sindhu’s mentor Pullela Gopichand believes there is still more room for improvement and his ward can do even better.
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“I have always maintained that even when she won in 2013 or 2014 (back-to-back World Championship singles bronze medals) Sindhu is still some time away from being her best. I maintain that even now that she has the potential to do even better,” said Gopichand at a media interaction in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The 2001 All England champion also praised the way Sindhu has been coping with pressure in high-intensity matches which has definitely played a key role in her astounding success this season.
“She has done a lot of hard work to reach here and a lot of people will keep looking to get good performances against her and beat her. It’s going to be challenging, but I am happy the way she has coped with the pressure and got us the performances which were very important.”
The coach extraordinaire also seemed satisfied with Sindhu’s show at the recently-concluded World Superseries Finals held in Dubai where she qualified for the first time and made it to the semi-finals. The shuttle queen won two out of her three group matches and one of those wins came over none other than the Olympic champion Carolina Marin in straight games.
In the last-four stage, her brilliant run was ended by the Korean veteran Sung Ji Hyun in three games.
“Overall it has been a very good show from Sindhu (in Dubai). She played well in all the matches. Of course she lost to Sung but Sung played very well on that day; it was a very good match.”
Happy with Sindhu’s overall performance: Gopichand
The 43-year-old chief national coach also admitted that he is happy with his protégé’s overall performance and lauded her late surge in the Asian swing which helped her clinch a berth at the year-ender.
“The year has been fantastic. She had a chance to play Marin (in Dubai) and beat her. It's good. The way she qualified for the Super Series finals was also very creditable as she had to win and play the finals. In the last three tournaments she took part in there was one win, one runner up and one semi-final. I'm happy the way she has played overall.”
Gopichand, however, pointed out that Sindhu still needs work to be able to readily adapt to different styles of play and court conditions. That losing should not matter was another big advice he had for the World No. 6.
“She of course needs to adapt to different styles of play, different court conditions. She needs to actually get used to the fact that it does not matter to lose,” said the legendary coach.
