World champion PV Sindhu expected 'a 2017-like long match with Okuhara'

Hyderabad: Shuttler PV Sindhu on Tuesday said that she was prepared for a 2017-like long match with Japanese player Nozomi Okuhara during the BWF World Championships and added that a dominating game led her to a historic win.

In an exclusive chat with ANI, Sindhu said that the central government was very supportive and is promoting every sport.

"Everyone was expecting a long match so I was prepared for everything because it's more of like a long match with Japanese players. I was very focused and positive. Being positive and believing in myself helped me to keep me going," she told ANI here.

Sindhu became the first Indian to win a World Championships gold medal by defeating Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in the finals of the tournament on Sunday.

While Sindhu and Okuhara battled for 110 minutes during the 2017 World Championships final match, the duration of Sunday's match was just 38 minute.
Talking about her strategy during the match, Sindhu said, "I was very dominating from the start and took a huge lead where I actually did not give her a chance or easy points to cope up with me and I finished it off that way."

She said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju's support to all forms of sports have been "fantastic". "I met the Sports Minister and also PM Ji. They've been really very supportive. It's really good that they're doing a lot for sports," she said.

Commenting on her biopic, she said that it will inspire a lot of youngsters and she was "really looking forward to it."