PV Sindhu wants to be No 1 next year

Mumbai: P.V. Sindhu rates “2016 as one of the best years of her life” when she reflects in hindsight.

Not many will have the nerve to argue with the 22-year old who provided some gloss to yet another sub-standard display of India at the Olympics, claiming a silver in singles badminton at Rio.

She carried forward the momentum in 2017, but three defeats in premier tournament finals have halted her march to an extent.

Sindhu ends the year as the world No.3 player with the pain of losing at the Dubai World Superseries Finals rankling her. “The loss was a bit sad and I was emotional after it. I had a great week while I was in Dubai. I reached great levels and it was sad to lose in the end,” Sindhu said here on Thursday.

The shuttler appeared in six finals in 2017, winning thrice, at the Korea Open, India Open, and Syed Modi International Championships. Her three defeats were in World Championship Finals, Hong Kong Open, and the Dubai yearender.

But Sindhu insists results have improved in the year gone by. “2017 was a little better. I am happy with my performances even though there were a few losses. I learnt many things in different tournaments. The coming year will be even better,” she said after launching the ‘PV Sindhu app.’

Earlier in Delhi, after guiding Chennai Smashers to a 4-3 win over Mumbai Rockets in PBL on Wednesday night, the Hyderabad player said: “I want to see myself as world No.1 in the upcoming season. I am at 3 now and it depends on tournaments, if you play well, you will automatically get the ranking. So I am not thinking much about the rankings. I just have to play well and I know I will automatically be there.”

Sindhu stressed on the need to identify competitions based on one’s requirement. “Youngsters have a good opportunity with the number of tournaments but we need to pick choose them. Injuries will happen but we have to chose the right tournaments.”