Interview: PV Sindhu on 2018 goals, playing through long rallies, moving on from coach Mulyo

The celebrity status has started to sit easy on PV Sindhu. The 22-year-old was the star attraction of the just concluded Premier Badminton League. If Chennai lined up to see the world championship silver medallist in action, she was busy obliging fans with photo opportunities and autographs outside the Gachibowli stadium complex whenever she turned up to watch the matches till her mother actually prodded her to get moving.

But behind the adulation and the public appearances, Sindhu very well knows that she has to get moving pretty quickly as she prepares for another gruelling season. She can hardly bask in the glory of a year in which she won two Superseries titles, and played two marathon finals in the World Championships and year-ending Superseries Finals.

Though she is reluctant to talk in detail about what she is working on ahead of the new season, Sindhu insists the main focus is to better the showing of 2017 and try and win medals at the Commonwealth and Asian Games.

“Expectations would be there but I am not thinking too much about it,” she said. “Yes, I want to do better than last year. As a player you have to evolve and can’t sit on your past records. There are many things that have changed from the way I played when I won my first world championship medal in 2013 and the way I played in 2017.”

She added, “Every time you are training, you are working on a new stroke or trying to perfect a stroke. The one thing I have worked a lot in the past few years is my defence and I think that is the most important difference in my game today.”

Sharpness of strokes

The one area that probably still hurts Sindhu is the close loss in the two finals last year to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi. The world No 3 has been playing one-on-one with junior boys at the Gopichand Academy for the last few days to improve the sharpness of her strokes even when rallies get longer – something she struggled with in the two finals – with Indonesian coach Heriawan making her continue the exchanges even after she has won a point.

But does she still think of those matches and what could have been? “Not really,” she said. “It hurts a lot at that moment. But thankfully, the next day you are travelling and that helps you take your mind off the game. Then you start preparing for the next tournament, looking to win another tournament. If I am sometimes feeling really low, then I try and watch a movie or eat an ice cream.”

Sindhu will begin her 2018 campaign with the Indonesia Masters next week. The 22-year-old skipped this week’s Malaysia Masters to get more preparation time after the PBL. She will face Hanna Ramadini in the opening round in Jakarta and could meet either Saina Nehwal or China’s Chen Yufei in the pre-quarters.

While these are still early days, the rivalry between her, the two Japanese stars and Spain’s two-time world champion Carolina Marin have been the talking point for the upcoming season. Though they are fierce competitors on the court, Sindhu does share a very good rapport with all of them off it, something not many players manage in this ultra-competitive environment.

But Sindhu begs to differ. “I think when you are on court then you play hard and try to win,” she said. “But I really like to make friends outside the court. I used to get along very well with Wang Yihan of China and have a very good rapport with Carolina and Wang Shixian among others. Since the PBL, Gabby [Adcock] and me have become good friends are we spend a lot of time together as a team.”

The ever-smiling Hyderabadi, who was known for her outgoing approach since her junior days, also recently launched her official app to connect with her fans. She has been active on social media platforms posting pictures with designer clothes, and attending fashion shows and public events.

“I really like to dress up,” said the Rio Olympic silver medallist, who lists mathematics as her favourite subject in school and is also pursuing a MBA degree in her free time. “Dressing up is something that helps me take time off from badminton and relax. Success has brought more commercials and that does give me an opportunity to dress up. But it is not because of them that I dress up. It’s that I really like to.”

But even she knows that the new Badminton World Federation rules, making it mandatory for top players to play in 12 tournaments apart from the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, mean that 2018 would be pretty demanding.

The obvious question on everybody’s mind is how much the departure of coach Mulyo Handoyo could affect her. The Indonesian, who joined the national set up only last year, helped India win over half a dozen Superseries titles and had changed a few things in training to ensure that the players were not running out of steam in longer matches.

Moving on from Mulyo

Sindhu admits that Handoyo’s departure was a big loss but insists that it should not adversely affect her performance going forward.

“There is no doubt that Mulyo helped us a lot in improving our game and you can see the difference he made with India winning so many Superseries titles,” she said. “But we have to accept that he is gone now. Gopi sir is there. May be some other coach will come. Every coach has a different style, Mulyo had his. But we also know what needs to be done and we will work hard towards our goal.”

While the obvious goal is to win an Asian Games medal and bag the Commonwealth Games gold that eluded her in the last edition in Glasgow, Sindhu wants to first focus on the job at hand and then bother about the bigger picture.

“Obviously winning medals in the CWG, Asian Games, World Championship and All England are the major goals. But I start my season with Indonesia Open and India Open, and would first like to give my best there. It’s better to focus on one tournament at a time,” said Sindhu, who also has to rework her serve slightly before the All England to conform to the new rules of having the shuttle below the 1.15-metre mark.

She insists that it shouldn’t be much of a problem for her unlike the really tall men’s players but has nevertheless started practicing the new serve, though without the measuring equipment to check whether she would have to go down further for a legal serve.

After all, well began is half done. And Sindhu wants nothing more but to start 2018 on a winning note.