What’s the story?
Having had a splendid few weeks on the BWF Tour, the Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu is upbeat about the first tournament of the Superseries season – the prestigious All England Championships that is scheduled to begin in Birmingham on Tuesday. The 21-year-old did not have the best of outings last year and crashed out in the very first round to the Thai veteran Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in three games.
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But this time, the Pullela Gopichand protégé is more confident about her chances. Her exploits on the circuit have catapulted her to a career-high World No. 5 ranking and Sindhu is naturally eager to give her best shot.
“This is one of the most important tournaments on the circuit,” Sindhu told ESPN in a recent interview. “It is important to start well and I want to give my best. I have to play my game, last time I lost in the first round so I am eager to do better this time.”
In case you didn’t know…
Sindhu has begun the 2017 season in a brilliant fashion, picking up from where she had left last year. She guided the Chennai Smashers to their maiden Premier Badminton League crown and then captured her first title of 2017 at home at the Syed Modi International.
It was after that victory that she took time off from competitive play for a month to tend to her hamstring and gear up well for the hectic Superseries circuit.
The heart of the matter
Sindhu has insisted that the break was essential as she was playing uninterrupted for the past few months. Since October, the India No. 1 has made it to back-to-back finals at the China Open Superseries Premier and the Hong Kong Open Superseries out of which she won the former. Those performances also helped her qualify for the season-ending Superseries Finals where she reached the semi-finals.
And she was back on the courts from the very first week of 2017 for her Premier Badminton League commitment and the Syed Modi International tournament.
The hiatus thus gave her the much-needed time to refocus on her training and work hard on sharpening all her strokes.
What’s next?
PV Sindhu starts her first round match at the All England Championships on Wednesday against the 33rd ranked Mette Poulsen of Denmark. She has a tough draw considering the top seed and World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying is her potential quarter-final opponent.
Sportskeeda’s take
Sindhu’s consistency has been awe-inspiring after her Rio run. What has stood out is her ability to remain calm and collected under pressure which she has acquired recently.
That is evident from the fact that she has not lost before the semi-finals in her last four tournaments. Here’s hoping Sindhu is able to carry on in the same vein and can make quite an impact at the All England Championships like she has promised.
