Uber Cup preparations on track, says confident Sindhu

 The impressive strides of PV Sindhu in the last two years have bolstered India’s challenge in the Uber Cup, to be held  hereat Siri Fort Sports Complex from Saturday.

With Saina Nehwal back, the country will have two top ranked players figuring in the singles event and Sindhu admits that will give them the edge in the elite event.

Sindhu was happy the way the team had trained in the week-long camp here and was content playing the second singles rubber. “It is going to be our strength, me and Saina (World No. 8)  playing together. Saina is playing well. If she takes the first singles, it will be good for me. There are good matches lined up. I wish we play well. We also have a good doubles players in Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa,” Sindhu told reporters on Monday.

"The preparations are going well. We came here on Wednesday. The coaches are there and correcting our mistakes. We are all a group. I hope we give our 100 per cent. Training wise nothing is lacking. There are so many coaches like Vimal (Kumar) sir, Gopi (Pullela Gopichand) sir, Madhumita (Bisht) madam. We have physios also.” Apart from facing Thailand and Canada, the Indian women will also face Hong Kong and Sindhu picked out Thailand as a ‘tricky’ opponent.

“The draw is good and we hope we can do well. There is nothing lagging. We believe we can do it. I think Thailand will be bit tricky. From there, Ratchanok Intanon (World No. 4) will play with Saina and there are Busanan Ongbumrungpan and Porntip Buranaprasertsuk as well. I will be playing against Porntip, who has been playing really well. I think in the last four or five months I haven’t played against her. She will be one tough opponent.” The 18-year-old Hyderabadi hoped that the team and crowd support would be able to lift the peformance. “In the team event, while playing for ourselves, we play for the team too. It is not like if we lost, it’s all over. There will be a lot of support from team members and also from the crowd."

“It is our home ground and with the confidence of playing at home, we hope we do well.”

Sindhu wants to be more consistent.“I am really happy to end with a bronze medal at the ABC. But a bit disappointed too as I could have won against Shixian Wang. “I know I have to be consistent.

It’s not that in one tournament I am reaching semifinals and losing in first round in the next event. From the World Championships (where Sindhu won bronze) last year, I did lose in the first rounds in one or two tournaments but later on I have improved. I have been working hard on my mistakes.”