Step-by-step progress

“I want to go step by step,” she said in a city hotel on Tuesday where she came with her father, Ramana Rao, to receive the Indian Olympic Association award of Rs 30 lakh for her silver medal winning performance in the Rio Olympic Games. “I am No 6 now and obviously, I want to be No 1, that is my goal,” she told DTNext. 

But for the moment, she has January in sight and her Premier Badminton League commitments for Chennai Smashers, for whom she is the marquee player. “Last year, I could not come here and hopefully this year, I would be here,” she said. The Chennai leg will be played on January 10 and 11. The event will kick off in Hyderabad on January 1 where all the world players would converge. She said she is looking forward to playing in Chennai in front of her fans. 

Sindhu said PBL would help Indian players improve their skills and attitude as they would be up against the top players. “I will also play in Syed Modi tournament and other Super Series events. But my focus will be on the All-England Championship and the World Championship,” she said. 

Sindhu agreed the silver medal in Rio was an important achievement and there was pressure after that to do well. “At that point, it looked big but then you look higher for more challenges and you realise you have to achieve more, she said. Sindhu had lost to Carolina Marin in the final at Rio Olympics and she exacted revenge on the Spaniard earlier this month in the BWF Dubai Super Series with a comfortable win.”

Nowadays, you play same opponents three or four times within no time and you make adjustments, change your game accordingly,” she said of rivalry among the top guns, indicating she has matured in the top league. Sindhu said the 11-point system in PBL is an exciting prospect. 

“You have to be alert from the start and you have to be quick on your feet. There is no time to think or relax in the 11-point format,” she explained. In the BWF Annual Grand Meeting in 2014 a review of the scoring system was mooted. It was decided to try a system with 5 games to 11 points with no setting (i.e., the game ends no later than 11–10). Some tournaments use the new scoring system. 

Sindhu said she would play in 10 to 15 tournaments next year and she has been training with Pullela Gopichand, her coach. “We have excellent facilities and even the other coaches come down there for specific schedules in the academy there,” she said.

The President of the Indian Olympic Association, N. Ramachandran has said that the National Games would be held every two years. 

Speaking after the IOA Annual General Meeting, Ramachandran said “there may be a delay of one or two months but certainly one or two years.” The IOA president said Goa would host the National Games but it “depended on the assistance by the Centre.” 

If it pulled out, there are options available. The IOA president said the association did not want to face as many disputes as now and sought the federations to cooperate and resolve matters themselves or seek the intervention of the IOA’s disputes committee. He advised the federastions not to rush to courts for this. 

“We would then take a tough stand, even decide whether to send in or not their entries. Government will intervene but the point is today a major chunk of the expenditure for IOA is in fighting legal cases because affected Federations drag it in as main respondents. He said the disputes were the main issue before the house. 

At the exective committee meeting it had been decided to resolve them quickly for they affected the image of the IOA. The decisions of the committee, he said were approved by the house. As per the decisions taken, in boxing, the matter was that Boxing Federation of India had sought affiliation with the IOA while the recognised body as of now was IABF. Volleyball is in the court. The Arbtirator has set elections for the President of the Volleyball Federation of India and IOA will assist them as and when the arbitrator requested.