Rio 2016: Her best is yet to come, says Gopichand

Indian badminton national coach Pullela Gopichand feels P.V. Sindhu can do much better in terms of her defensive ability as she faces world number three Nozomi Okuhara in the Olympic semifinals here on Thursday.

World number 10 Sindhu, who has a 1-3 win-loss record against Nozomi, has never beaten the Japanese since Asian Youth Under-19 Championship in 2012 and has lost on three consecutive occasions in 2014, 2015 and the last being Asian Team Championship in Hyderabad earlier in February this year.

“It was good (the win against Wang Yihan) but in my book she can do a notch higher. There’s of course some chances of improvement in a couple of areas,” Gopi said after Sindhu earned a hard-fought 22-20, 21-19 win over world number two Wang to make the semis.

Sindhu gave away six easy points at a crucial stage in the second game to hand Yihan a 19-18 lead, but the Indian did well to scrape through in a 55-minute battle of nerves.

“She’s been inconsistent a few times and squandered leads but I think it’s part of her learning experience. She’s still young, and has age on her side. I think she’s a great fighter with great work ethic,” Gopi said, rating the win as one of the biggest of 21-year-old Sindhu’s career.