Paris Olympics 2024 will feature a seven-player Indian contingent in badminton, including the high-flying men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu.
This is the largerst contingent India has sent for badminton to the Olympics.
In an exclusive interaction with JioCinema in Paris, Sindhu’s mentor and legendary shuttler Prakash Padukone discussed Sindhu’s chances of making it a hattrick of Olympic medals, the preparation of the Indian contingent and other medal hopefuls.
P.V Sindhu’s preparations
Padukone remains confident of Sindhu’s chances in grabbing a third Olympic medal. He said “Her preparations have gone well, and she is playing well in practice sessions. So, in terms of preparations, everything has been very good.”
He emphasized his work in tactical and strategical aspects of her game. “I am focusing on tactics and strategy on the court, on what strokes to use when, and a little to do with the mind. About nine months ago, she was little low on confidence due to frequent coaching changes and not being able to identify what was going wrong.”
“We’ve worked on her mental strength and strategy, ensuring she makes better use of the right strokes. We’ve tried to cut down on mistakes and playing percentage badminton, knowing when to attack, defend, and play safe. It remains to be seen if she can reproduce that form during the Olympics,” he added.
He is confident about Sindhu producing her best self at the Paris Olympics. “If she is able to reproduce the form, like what she’s doing in practice, I think she’ll do better than in the past tournaments.”
“The difference at the top is so little and it is also about handling pressure in Olympics, and Sindhu has an advantage as she has won two Olympic medals. We keep reminding her to focus on her game, and the end result will be good.”
On medal chances at Paris
Padukone remains optimistic about India’s chances of a medal and believes India can win medals in all the categories. “We have a chance in all the three events: men’s singles, women’s singles and the men’s doubles. The men’s doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, have been very consistent and have beaten top players. They also have a fairly good draw.,” he said.
Speaking of the others, he said “Lakshya Sen has a tough group, but he has previously beaten his group opponents Jonatan Christie, Kevin Cordón and Julien Carraggi so it depends on his current form.”
“HS Prannoy has not been in the best form, but sometimes it could be a blessing in disguise as there is little weight of expectations and you might reach the peak now, it can go both ways,” he added.
He concluded saying “Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto in women’s doubles have a challenging draw, but if they can qualify further, that will be icing on the cake.”