Syed Modi International GPG: PV Sindhu ecstatic to begin the new season with victory

Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu is ecstatic to begin the new season with a victory at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold tournament and will look to get back to her best ahead of the important tournaments such as All England and World Championship. “I am very happy to win this trophy as this is the first international tournament in 2017 for me. I am glad to start this year with victories – first the PBL and now this GPG. (Gregoria) Mariska is an upcoming player and she also played well,” Sindhu, who cantered to a 21-13 21-14 win over the young Indonesian in the women’s singles finals, told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_3226540” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PV Sindhu (Women singles) and Sameer Verma (Men’s singles) with their trophies after wining the Syed modi International GP Gold. PTI[/caption] Sindhu had come close to winning the trophy in 2014, but suffered a loss against compatriot and former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal in the finals. “After this tournament there will be All England. I will have to prepare for that as well and I will have to work harder to be at my best shape. It is a big tournament,” she had said earlier. “There is also World Championship and many other Super Series events, so I would want to take it step by step. My coach will decide what events I will play after Syed Modi as fitness wise also you have to strategise because every tournament is important for me.” National champion Sameer Verma was also on cloud nine after laying claim to his maiden Grand Prix Gold title here. “This win will give me a lot of confidence. It is my first GPG final and I won the title, couldn’t have asked for a better start to the new season. It will help me in defending my title at the National championship next week,” Sameer said. “I got injured after the Nationals at Chandigarh in April. I was getting good results before that, I had beaten a few good players such as China’s Wang Zhengming at Swiss Open in March, so my confidence was getting up but then I hurt my shoulder and couldn’t play for two and a half months. “After recovering I reached the semifinals of Bitburger and then reaching the finals at Hong Kong gave me a lot of confidence. All this while I was not in that level, although I was training hard at the academy,” he added. Asked about his goals, Sameer said: “I will look to defend the Nationals and of course want to play well at All England and World Championship.” Sameer fought back from 5-11 down in both the games to outwit fellow Indian B Sai Praneeth 21-19 21-16 in a 44-minute final. Talking about the match, Sameer said: “My strategy was not working initially, he was comfortable with the game I was playing. Whenever I was going on attack, he was getting points. I was taking the pace off after the break, I slowed the game and it worked. “In the second game, probably losing the first game from a lead affected him and also he was facing some problem with his shoulder.