India’s badminton player PV Sindhu (left) and Indian cricket team player Virat Kohli.© AFP and Twitter
India’s star badminton player PV Sindhu, who is struggling for form ahead of the Asian Games, has revealed how Indian cricket team great Virat Kohli inspired her. The double Olympic medallist has found the going tough ever since returning from a five-month long lay-off following an ankle injury en-route to the Commonwealth Games gold last August. Desperate to arrest the slide, the 28-year-old sought help of legendary Prakash Padukone and trained under him at his Academy PPBA in Bengaluru ahead of the continental event. Sindhu said that Kohli’s interview has helped her understand that event the best in the business has to deal with failures. (Asian Games Medal Tally)
“I do read some interviews, and I’ve seen Virat’s as well – when you’re sad and nothing is working out, how you are and how you come out of it stronger. Initially Virat too went through a situation where he couldn’t score. But coming out of that is incredibly important, even for the greatest athletes. I’m sure every athlete goes through it,” Sindhu told Hindustan Times.
The 2019 world champion has lost seven times in the first round of BWF tour events this year.
A semifinal finish at the Canada Open and two quarterfinals — US Open super 300 and Australian Open super 500 — are the only notable performances so far this season.
“When I was winning everything, it was almost perfect (smiles). You’re happy, you come back and you want to win more. But there are days also when you lose, you are down, you want to get into that rhythm but you’re not able to. I’m sure there are situations where you win some and you lose some. It can never happen that you win every time, right? Especially right now, after the injury, coming back in January and trying to find that rhythm again…it’s been OK, but there have been ups and downs,” Sindhu said.
Earlier, former India coach Vimal Kumar had said that repeated failures in tournaments this season has dented Sindhu’s confidence and not much should be expected from the ace Indian shuttler at the Asian Games.
(With PTI Inputs)
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