Now confident of taking on Yihan Wang: Sindhu

Top Indian shuttler Pusarla Venkata Sindhu says she is confident of taking on holder Yihan Wang at the Guangzhou World Championships from Aug 5-11.

The two have met only once, at the Sudirman Cup in May, and the Chinese World No.2 Yihan won that encounter against the 18-year-old Indian 19-21, 21-16, 21-14, as her team cantered to a 5-0 victory.

The World No.12 has a first round bye at the world championships and she is expected to ease past her second round opponent, either Indonesia's World No.22 Aprilla Yuswandari or Japan's World No.32 Kaori Imabeppu, before she takes on defending champion Yihan.

"Well I am taking one match at a time. I have a first round bye then in the second round I will be facing either Aprilla or Kaori, both are tough opponents. If I get past the first hurdle then it will be Yihan. When we met in the Sudirman Cup, I took the first game and ran very close in the second. That gave me a lot of confidence and the hope of beating her. I think it is possible to beat her now since I know how she plays," Sindhu told IANS from Hyderabad.

The 18-year-old, who will be participating in the world championships for the first time, said that she started her preparation two weeks ago.

"It is two weeks now that I have been training and things are fine. Me and my support staff planned how to go about it. I have seen the draw and how each one of my likely opponents plays to chalk out the strategy, viewing and studying the players' videos," said the tall lanky Hyderabadi, who is currently pursuing B.Com from St. Ann's, Mehdipatnam.

Sindhu has been off court for a couple of months owing to a knee injury and missed both Super Series events in Indonesia and Singapore, but she says she is fully fit now.

"I am fine now. I pulled out Indonesia and Singapore events owing to a niggle in the right knee. Then I had some problem with my left knee. The rest helped helped me and now I am trying to improve my endurance levels with regular exercise," said Sindhu, who in May won her first Grand Prix Gold title at the Malaysia Open.

What is her immediate target?

"I would like to get into the top-10 by the end of the year and if I achieve it, I would like to protect my ranking. The idea is to play well and give my 100 percent."

Sindhu Monday was sold for $80,000 to Awadh Warriors at the Indian Badminton League (IBL) players auction and is their icon player.

"I am quite happy that I would be playing for Lucknow. I did not really think about the price, I am happy with what I got. All the teams in the IBL are more or less of the same standard at the moment and I will try my best to keep my team afloat," Sindhu signed off.

(Sandeep Sikdar can be contacted at sandeep.s@ians.in