Sindhu is too good a player, will bounce back soon

Mumbai : PV Sindhu is too good a player to lie low for a long time and she will bounce back strongly before the Tokyo Olympics after making some adjustments in her game, national badminton coach Pulella Gopichand said here on Thursday.

Rio Olympic silver medallist Sindhu has exited in the early stages of all tournaments, except the French Open, since winning her maiden World Championship title in August.

But she failed to defend her World Championship title in Gunagzhou earlier this month, crashing out in the group stages. Sindhu is currently sixth in world rankings ahead of compatriot Saina Nehwal (11th).

"She (Sindhu) is too good a player not to come good. We will turn it back, we need to make some changes and hopefully we will get her back to winning ways soon," said Gopichand.

Gopichand is confident that a big badminton contingent will represent India in next year's Tokyo Olympics. He, however, stressed on the need to prepare well for the mega-event.

"Well, I have said that we have had some not so good results. It's obvious, you need to buck up and get better. With the Olympic qualification on and with almost eight of them in the top 15 in men's singles, everybody thinks they have a chance," he said.

He, however, lamented that with a packed international calendar in place, the Indian shuttlers are hardly get any time to prepare for the Olympics.

"It is just ending up (playing) tournaments after tournaments and there is hardly any time for preparation," he said during the launch of 'Badminton Gurukul', a joint initiative of Tata Group and TVS Logistics Group.

"Having said that, I think, sooner or later we will have to crack that and make sure that people get back on track and start preparing well.

May-June-July will be the key months for preparation and hopefully we will have a big contingent (in Tokyo)," the former All England champion added.

"Whether it is men single's, women's singles or men's doubles, especially with the format in the Olympics, whoever qualifies has a chance and will try and get as many medals possible."

He also lavished praise on rising shuttler Lakshya Sen and the men's doubles pair of Satviksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. "Lakshya's performance is great because he has done well to come up so quickly.

With the ranking system it is important that you get into the top 30s as quickly as possible because then you get entries into big events. Now with his ranking, he right up and he will get entry in the All England.

"I believe he belongs at that level and he is young, with the confidence and strokes he has, it will be exciting to see his progress. He is doing the right things," Gopichand said.