Faridabad:

While India ace shuttler Saina Nehwal is on course to realise her London dreams, 17-year-old P V Sindhu, who recently won the Asia Youth U-19 championship, has already set her eyes at 2016 Rio Olympics.

The only Indian to win the prestigious title at Korea earlier this month, Sindhu said she is ready to take on the big guns of badminton and share the workload with Saina in the women’s singles.

“I am ranked 26th now and I want to break into top-10 by this year end. I have been working hard and improving and think I am ready to share the workload with Saina. I see myself playing the next Olympics,” said Sindhu on the sidelines of a Manav Rachna Sports Academy program here.

“I wish all the best to the Indian team for the Olympics. I am sure Saina will get a medal. P Kashyap, Jwala (Gutta), Ashwini (Ponappa) and V Diju — all of them practice so hard and my best wishes are with them.

“This time I missed out but next time definitely I would like to be there in Olympics. I know Olympics is big and I am working hard to do well,” said Sindhu, who managed to jump from 80 to top-30 in the last six months but eventually ran out of time to qualify for the upcoming London Games.

The only women’s singles player to hold the junior and senior national titles at the same time, Sindhu played one Grand Prix Gold (Thailand) and two Super Series (Indonesia, Singapore) events before the U-19 Asian championship on the trot.

“Compared to last year, I have improved my game a lot. My attack and defence, rally and strokes and endurance levels have improved. In senior circuit, matches goes on for an hour and it needs endurance,” she said.

Asked about that one thing she would want to learn from Saina, Sindhu said she would have to work hard on her strokes, especially the flick, which is Saina’s biggest strength.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Sports> More Sports> Badminton / PTI / July 20th, 2012