Badminton News: Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu’s lack of consistency following his return from injury should not be cause for “concern”, national badminton head coach Pullela Gopichand has said.

PV Sindhu was again knocked out in the first round on Tuesday when she lost to world number 1 Akane Yamaguchi at the 2023 Singapore Open.

“He’s so young to say he’s only 26-27. That’s a good age, there’s no reason to worry,” Gopichand told PTI during a virtual interaction. .

A silver medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, PV Sindhu suffered an ankle injury last August and dropped out of the top 10 of the BWF Women’s Singles Rankings. He was out for four months due to this injury.

Sindhu’s finals and semi-finals at Madrid’s Spain Masters and Malaysian Masters were his best results of the season, respectively. She hit rock bottom with a first-round exit at the Thailand Open when she lost to Cananda’s Michell Li.

But Gopichand, the former All-England champion who guided Sindhu from age 10 to Olympic medalist, is confident she will come back stronger.

“He was the best in six-eight months. He started to play well. I hope he will play well in the future. He is definitely one of India’s bets for the future,” Gopichand said.

Calling it a mixed season for PV Sindhu, Gopichand said: “It’s the start of the season and the start of Olympic qualification. The results have been mixed so far.

“We have a lot of pressure on the players to perform. We have to support them and hope they play a great tournament.”

The highlight of India’s badminton season was HS Prannoy’s victory at the Malaysia Masters last month, the 30-year-old’s first men’s singles win since the 2017 US Open.

“From our general point of view, the victory of Prannoy in Malaysia is something good and I am very happy. It’s the start of the season, it’s the start.”

“We didn’t do well in the Sudirman Cup, that’s kind of a negative note. Lakshya Sen did well to reach the semi-finals in Thailand, and I think the next few weeks will be critical and we have a big upcoming tournament,” said Gopichand, 49.

The best badminton players in the country are currently training with personal trainers. Sindhu is training with Vidhi Chuadhary, while struggling Kidambi Srikkanth has matched Indonesia’s Wiempie Mahardi ahead of the Paris Olympics next year.

“Generally the rigors of having to play back to back, players started to feel the need for a personal trainer,” Gopichand said.

“If someone wins, everyone starts to believe they need it. That’s something that happened. In an Olympic year, everyone needs personal attention. I think it’s a trend that has started, a lot of people are following it in other sports as well.

Gopichand will now be seen promoting padel as an adviser. The racquet sport combines tennis and squash and is relatively new in India. It is nicknamed “Tennis with a wall” and “Squash in the sun”.

“I saw the sport for the first time in Dubai and found it very energetic, very fun and very interactive. At the Academy we have a running track and between the tracks we have space and we thought padels would be suitable for that,” he said.

The badminton player believes the sport has the potential to become popular in India.

“I believe that as a sport some of the important things are the grassroots level. I think it’s easy to pick up but hard to master. It’s a sport where anyone can have a go and that’s what makes the sport such a low barrier to entry. Everyone has the opportunity to play sport,” added the 2001 All England champion.

Article Tags: PV Sindhu, Pullela Gopichand