Have kept an empty space in cabinet for Olympic gold: Sindhu

The World Championship gold has healed the wounds of all past final debacles except the Rio Olympics, says Indian badminton ace P V Sindhu, who has kept an empty space in her trophy cabinet for the top prize, which she hopes to claim in Tokyo next year.

An Olympic silver-medallist, Sindhu clinched the historic World Championship gold at Basel after beating Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-7 21-7 in her third successive final.

Before that historic day, the 24-year-old Indian faced incessant for losing lost in the finals of major events such as the Rio Games, World Championships (2017, 2018), 2017 Dubai Super Series Finals, the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Jakarta Asian Games.

"It (World Championships gold) takes care of all those losses. People have been talking about my final phobia, how I take pressure in the finals and I can say I gave the answer with my racquet," Sindhu, who has been recommended for Padma Bhushan, told PTI in an interview.

"But Olympics is a completely different feeling. Rio (Games) and World Championship gave me different memories, but, yeah, one gold medal is missing, so definitely I will work hard for that and would love to see myself win that Olympic gold at Tokyo.

"There is a vacant space (laughs) in my cabinet for that gold. The Olympic qualification is on and this win will give me the confidence to go further."
"I have been working with Kim. She had some changes for me and it helped me. But now I have to learn few new things. I need to work on net-play."