New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) PV Sindhu’s five World Championships medals have been built across more than a decade of highs and disappointments, and as she begins another campaign in New Delhi on Monday, the ace Indian shuttler said the setbacks she experienced along the way played a major role in shaping the player she has become.

Sindhu’s World Championships journey began with bronze medals in 2013 and 2014, followed by silver in 2017 and 2018 before she finally claimed gold in 2019. Looking back, she singled out the painful defeat to Nozomi Okuhara in the 2017 final as one of the moments that changed her approach.

“Having five medals at the world championships, of course, is an amazing journey, and each medal gave me a different kind of experience. Back then, in 2013, I had bronze; in 2014, again bronze; then silver, silver, and then gold. The transition was wonderful to see, and there were a couple of amazing moments. The first one was, as you said, getting a medal itself, which is definitely an amazing moment, but apart from that, the moment when I became much stronger was when I lost at the 2017 World Championships.

“After playing a very hard-fought match, 1 hour 50 minutes against Okuhara in Glasgow, that itself triggered something. It was very hard, and I was very hard on myself because I was almost there, but I couldn’t get that goal. It was just a matter of one or two points, and that made me much stronger. There were times when I lost even in 2018, when I was training, and then I lost the first game, and I lost the gold. So these are some of the moments, especially at the world championships, that made me much stronger and helped me come back much stronger,” Sindhu said in the pre-match press conference at the Indira Gandhi Stadium on Sunday.

Seven years on from her title-winning campaign, Sindhu said the player returning to the World Championships in 2026 is considerably different from the one who lifted the trophy in 2019. The changes, she said, extend beyond her game and into the way she reads situations on court.

“There have been quite some changes, I would say, in terms of the game and in how you think and strategise. Overall, I feel the game, badminton, and the sport itself have changed. Earlier, women’s singles was more attacking and faster-paced. But now it’s more about long rallies and staying on court for longer periods of time. So you need a lot of patience in that respect. But when you look back, since then until now, as a person, in terms of experience, there have been a lot of changes. And I feel now I am much more experienced. Irrespective of playing the sport for a longer period of time, I am definitely much more experienced in terms of how to deal with things on court. Sometimes there is drift. And sometimes, how do you control the shuttle? It might not go your way all the time. So, how do you adjust and make sure it is convenient for you?,” she added.

That experience, however, has not removed the nerves that accompany the start of a major tournament. Sindhu acknowledged that the butterflies are still there, even after years of competing at the highest level.

“Actually, yes, and at the same time, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve had a lot of experience. I’ve faced a lot of matches in the previous years, and I’ve played a lot of first-round matches where I’ve had butterflies and felt a lot of pressure. I won’t deny that there is pressure. There is pressure, but at the same time, I just want to give my best because I know I’ve played hard and I’ve worked hard in my training and in my profession, so I just have to go out there on the court and just, like, put my best out there, irrespective of whatever the result is,” Sindhu expressed.

And amid all the changes in the sport and in her own career, Sindhu said one quality has remained intact. “The hunger for the game hasn’t changed, and I definitely know it’s in me. I can still do it, so the hunger for the sport hasn’t changed either.”

That hunger will now be tested once again at a World Championships, where Sindhu is chasing another medal, this time with the added weight and opportunity of competing at home.

–IANS

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