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Talking to The Indian Express from the Delhi airport before the Indian team’s departure, a chirpy Sindhu said, “This will be my third appearance in the World Junior Championships. In the last edition, I was able to make it to the quarter-finals and now I want to win a winning a medal. I would be going all out to win a gold.”“Though I have been doing well in the tournaments, I have gained a lot of confidence due to my performances at the Victor Indonesia International Challenge held in July this year in which I defeated Fransiska Ratnasari of Indonesia 21-16, 21-11 who was top seed in the tournament. She had defeated me in the Indian Open Grand Prix last year. My performances in the Dutch Open— in which I beat a strong opponent in the form of Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 21-14, 15-21, 21-13 in the semi-finals, has also instilled a sense of confidence in me. Even though I won a silver in the Dutch Open but the tournament has matured me as a player.”
The 16-year-old confided that participating at the senior level tournaments at a young age acts as a morale booster when she is playing in the junior level tournaments.
Sindhu said that badminton great Pullela Gopichand along with the other coaches at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad have helped her rectify her mistakes and that has resulted in victories this year. Though Sindhu could not attend the preparatory camp at Lucknow because she was away participating in the international tourneys but everybody responsible for the team’s preparations sounded optimistic about her prospects in the championships. The Indian junior badminton team coaches for Junior World Championships Sanjiv Sachdeva and Sudhir Singh besides Edwin Iriawan of Indonesia who was with the team in the last few days of the camp, all feel chances are ripe for Sindhu of excelling in the upcoming challenge.
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