India's silver medal-winning shuttler had her mobile 'confiscated' by coach Pullela Gopichand to ensure the 21-year-old didn't have any distractions ahead of the Olympics Games in Rio
Coach P Gopichand with PV Sindhu after her final match vs Spain's Carolina Marin in Rio on Friday. Pic/PTI
Rio de Janeiro: India's star shuttler PV Sindhu had more than a medal to celebrate immediately after her historic silver show at the Rio Olympics recently. She finally managed to get her mobile phone back from coach Pullela Gopichand, who had confiscated it to ensure the 21-year-old did not have any distractions ahead of the all-important Games.
Coach P Gopichand with PV Sindhu after her final match vs Spain's Carolina Marin in Rio on Friday. Pic/PTI
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"I will give her back her phone which she's not had for three months now," Gopichand said in an interview with Star Sports moments after his ward went down fighting 21-19, 12-21, 15-21 to Spanish World No 1 Carolina Marin in the women's singles final on Friday.
An ice cream treat
He also promised Sindhu a treat after the win. "She hasn't had ice cream in the last three months so I think I'll treat her to that as part of our celebration," added the former All-England champion. Sindhu was all smiles as her coach Gopichand made the announcement. "I'm very happy to have my phone back, and I like ice cream too," said the Hyderabadi, who became India's first female to win a silver medal at the Olympics.
Sindhu said this was easily the best week of her life. "It's been a wonderful week here. And I'm grateful to the crowd for their support. I dedicate this medal to my coach Gopi sir who has been fantastic and my parents who have made so many sacrifices without which I wouldn't be standing here today. This achievement is yet to sink in. I'm on cloud nine," said that lanky shuttler going on to congratulate her Spanish opponent on her achievement.
"Carolina played extremely well. I began the final well, winning the first game, but she came back strongly in the second and I made some simple errors too. In the third game, it was 10-all at one stage and at 11-10 she changed court. Then I made two-three errors and she finished it off. But over all considering it's been my first Olympics, I'm really happy with my play here. I've got it," said Sindhu firmly clutching her medal in the same right hand that saw her smashing World No 2 Wang Yihan of China in the quarter-finals and reigning All-England champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the semi-finals.
Gopi felt the biggest takeaway for Sindhu in this tournament has been her aggressive approach in every game. "Sindhu had a tough draw and it was important to keep up the aggression, adhere to the strategy and maintain perfect body language. The biggest takeaway for me is her aggression and brave strokes. I'll give her 10-on-10 for the way she fought throughout. But I still believe she has a lot of more strokes which we will see in the next few years.
Before the tournament, if someone had told me that there is a bronze medal for the taking, I would have said 'thank you very much'. So, I'm more than happy with this silver," said Gopi, who admitted to spending sleepless nights throughout the Olympics.
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