Hyderabad: Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu has decided to give Thomas & Uber Cup Badminton Championships a miss, which is scheduled to be held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 3 to 11. The staging of the tournament means, badminton will restart after a pause of six months.
It’s been a long, long wait ⌛️ but that makes it even more special!
— BWF (@bwfmedia) August 31, 2020
📅 3-11 October 2020
👉 https://t.co/IPIBdxDLOc #TotalBadminton #Aarhus2020 pic.twitter.com/km7xvCxdmo
“Sindhu has informed the Badminton Association of India (BAI) about her decision to skip the event because of some personal reasons,” a senior BAI official told The Hindu on Monday (August 31).
However, Sindhu will send her entry for the two Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 750 Tour events in Odense, Demark which will be held after the October event, informed Sindhu’s father PV Ramana on Wednesday (September 2).
“She will skip the Uber Cup because of personal reasons. As of now, she will send her entry for the next two tournaments and decide based on the situation,” said Ramana. It has only been a month since Sindhu, including with Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and N Sikki Reddy had begun training at the Gopichand academy. The players have not got sufficient time to come back to full physical strength.
Meanwhile, the ongoing elite national camp in Hyderabad contains only eight players out of which four are — Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Srikanth, Sikki Reddy. Ashwini Ponnappa is training at the Padukone academy in Bengaluru while the 2018 Gold Coast CWG mixed-team winner Chirag Shetty is practising at Goregaon Sports Club in Mumbai.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, is at his home in Amalapuram following the quarantine procedures. It leaves the BAI to choose a team for Thomas & Uber Cup, — 10 players each for men and women based on world rankings.
“We started training after a long break. The body takes time to adapt to the condition and take the load. Priority is to achieve fitness. Also, we have to wait and see the travel plans. There are a lot of things to decide. If I am fit to play I will go. I will have more clarity in the next two weeks,” World Championships bronze medalist Sai Praneeth said.
