PV Sindhu is still young and will bounce back stronger, says Pullela Gopichand
Pullela Gopichand, the head national badminton coach, believes that PV Sindhu's lack of consistency after returning from an injury shouldn't be a reason for concern. Tuesday's Singapore Open first-round defeat for Sindhu came at the hands of Akane Yamaguchi, the top-ranked player in the world.
"She's very young in saying that she's just 26-27. It's a good age, there is no reason for concern," Gopichand told PTI. Sindhu had suffered a career-threatening injury during her gold medal performance at the CWG 2022, in August last year. Since then she has slipped out of the top 10 in the rankings as well.
But Gopichand has unwavering faith in her and feels she will bounce back. "She has come out on top in the six-eight months. She is starting to play well. I do expect her to play well in the future. She is one of India's bets for the future," Gopichand said.
"It's the beginning of the season and the beginning of Olympic qualification. The results have been mixed so far. We have a lot of pressure on players to perform. We have to just back them up and hope that they are playing the big tournaments."
But HS Prannoy's results this season have been exciting, to say the least. The 30-year-old won the Malaysia Masters last month, which is a big plus. "From our perspective in general, Prannoy winning in Malaysia was a good one that's something I'm really happy about. it's the beginning of the season, it's early.
"We have not done well at the Sudirman Cup, it was kind of a negative note. Lakshya Sen did well to get to the semifinals in Thailand, and I do believe that the next few weeks will be very critical and we have big tournaments coming up," said the 49-year-old Gopichand.