The 'Girl Nadal' in the way of Sindhu's gold quest

August 19, 2016 09:04

Ecstatic but unruffled by burden of expectations after storming into the Olympic finals, Indian shuttler P V Sindhu today said she is in fact looking forward to end ace shooter Abhinav Bindra's reign as the country's sole individual Olympic gold-medallist.

Standing in her way is top seed Carolina Marin of Spain.

They call her the 'Girl Nadal' in Spain. The 23-year-old currently holds the number one position in the Badminton World Federation Womens Singles 2016; she has held the world champion title in women's singles since 2014!

Marin plays at a high pace, works up some wicked angles because shes southpaw and can turn badminton a combative sport with the amount of belligerence she can put into her game at all times. There was a time she was winning everything in 2015, before she the wins stopped -- presumably when she started training for the Olympics.

Marin has been in great form. The left-handed Spaniard demolished the reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui 21-14, 21-16 in less than an hour. The Chinese was gutted after suffering a knee injury down 18-16 in the second game.

And Sindhu knows that. In her post match comments, she said: "Of course she's a very tough opponent and it's not going to be easy tomorrow because it's an Olympic final and also she's really playing well."

"My target is gold and I will play my heart out. It will be the biggest match of my career."

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