A TRAINING camp with former men’s singles great Prakash Padukone has galvanised shuttler P.V. Sindhu (pic) for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
India’s Sindhu, who has dropped from seventh to 15th, is now pumped up to end her poor form in the women’s singles.
“Leading up to Hangzhou, following the world meet, I felt the need to organise a camp to rediscover myself,” said Sindhu in a social media post.
“I was fortunate to receive assistance from the incredible Prakash sir, a man with unique ability to teach and inspire.
“I’m hoping all the preparations pay off.”
The 2019 world champion has been struggling to reach similar heights since suffering a stress fracture in her left foot in August last year.
The 28-year-old Sindhu has not won any titles since returning to competitive action at the beginning of the year with her best being the runners-up finish at the Spain Masters in April.
Sindhu had suffered a disappointing second-round exit in her last outing at the World Championships last month after losing to Japan’s 2017 winner Nozomi Okuhara.
Sindhu, who is coached by Malaysia’s Hafiz Hashim, will be competing in the individual and women’s team event in her third Asiad.
In the last edition in Jakarta in 2018, Sindhu had captured silver in the individual event after losing to Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying in the final.
Sindhu is set to face a tough challenge from Tzu-ying, South Korea’s reigning world champion An Se-young, Japan’s world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi and 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medallist and homester Chen Yufei.
