We can win medal in Rio: Ashwini Ponnappa

In an exclusive to ToI, the doubles star, when asked about her chances in Rio Olympics said, “I think realistically me and my partner's (Jwala Gutta) hopes are different from what others think. We definitely want to go out there and win a medal because we believe we can. I am not sure if a lot of people believe that, but we are working hard towards achieving our goal.”

Asked about the lack of women's badminton in India, she said, “Over the years, mindset of Indians have changed a lot towards doubles especially after our gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. People were 'like oh yeah, we have a doubles team!' We are grateful to that medal. We did it in India, in front of our home crowd which made a huge difference. Things are changing. We got a doubles coach Kim Tan Her (Malaysia) last September,” reported ToI.

Despite being diminutive, Ponnappa has one of the fiercest smashes in the game. Talking about the secret to that, she said, “Don't know the secret. I hit from my shoulders. I am blessed with good genes and my contact with the shuttle is pretty good. I was always good when it comes to hard hitting. The problem is when I have to play soft strokes.”

Finally, the Bangalore-based player placed doubles badminton above the singles format when it came to the difficulty level saying, “I have played both. Doubles is actually tougher than singles as you need to combine well with the partner. I wish I had not stopped playing singles completely, I was actually made to stop playing. I feel sad about it but I loved playing doubles”.