Sindhu, India’s biggest medal hope in the racket sport at Tokyo, said that the cancellation of overseas tournaments ahead of the Olympics has actually helped her learn a few more tricks of her trade.
“There was enough time for training. I learnt a lot more,” the spunky shutler said at an event organised by Bridgestone, which is running a “chase your dream” campaign to cheer Indian athletes at the Tokyo games.
Had it not been the pandemic, the otherwise busy badminton schedule used to force players travelling a lot leaving little time for special training.
The pandemic-led cancellation of tournaments however shattered the Olympic dreams for Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth who could not improve their respective rankings ahead of the Olympics.
Countries can send a maximum of two players each in the men’s and women’s singles if both are ranked in the world’s top 16.
The sixth seed Indian will begin her campaign against Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova (world number 58) on July 25 at the Tokyo’s Musashino Forest Sports Plaza. Sindhu got an easy draw for the group stage in which she will play two matches. Hong Kong’s world number 34 Cheung Ngan Yi is the other player in her group.
Sindhu is likely to face Denmark’s Mia Blitchfeldt in the round of 16. Sindhu is the sole qualifier in the women’s single event
BS Sai Praneeth is India’s sole qualifier in men’s singles while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will team up to compete in men’s doubles. There will be representation in women’s doubles and mixed doubles
Only four players earn the quota in badminton compared with seven at Rio Olympics. India is however sending a 126-strong contingent to Tokyo, the country’s biggest ever participation across 18 disciplines in the world’s biggest quadrennial multi-sports show.
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