 "Badminton ace PV Sindhu to work with legendary Prakash Padukone")
After endless speculations and plenty of rumours, shuttler PV Sindhu has confirmed former Indian badminton player Prakash Padukone’s appointment as her mentor. Sindhu has been training with Padukone since the end of August and she made the announcement Saturday on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. A report published by The Indian Express claimed that the decision to work with Padukone was made around two weeks before the Asian Games when Sindhu travelled from the Suchitra Academy in Hyderabad. “For those wondering and constantly asking me, the cat is finally out of the bag! Prakash sir is assuming the role of the mentor in my setup. I started training with him at the end of August, and it’s been uphill ever since. He’s more than a mentor; he’s my guide, my guru, and, above all, a true friend. I wholeheartedly believe he possesses the magic to bring out the absolute best from my game. I am so grateful he reached out to me with one call when I was in Japan, and we’ve built on that connection exceptionally well. Dear sir, I am pumped! Looking forward to training with you! Let’s get to work,” read the post shared by Sindhu.
A double Olympic and five-time Worlds medalist, Sindhu was granted a protected ranking by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) after a knee injury that she suffered during the French Open last month. The 2019 World champion has been struggling with injury issues in recent times and has been a bit out of form since last August. Sindhu endured a left knee injury last month while she was involved in her second-round women’s singles fixture against Thailand opponent Supanida Katethong at the French Open. The 28-year-old Indian badminton player had a one-game lead at that point when she suffered the injury. The grievous nature of the injury eventually forced Sindhu to withdraw. Sindhu, who has chosen a protected rank of No 10, will be able to keep her BWF rankings safe until she recovers from injury. The protected ranking will, however, not be valid after 12 months.