Tokyo Olympics: Have added a new weapon in my arsenal, PV Sindhu sends warning to rivals

India's ace badminton player PV Sindhu gave a firm warning to her opponents ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, starting July 23. The Olympic silver medalist said on Monday that she has added a new weapon to her arsenal but she won't reveal it until the upcoming summer Games.

"I want it to keep it a surprise, but yes, I have worked on a new shot in my game. To find it out, you have to wait till the Olympics, Sindhu was quoted by India Today, as saying in an interview.

The 25-year-old Sindhu is currently training with her South Korean coach Park Tae Sang and trainer Suchitra at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad. In the same interview, she also said that she made sure she remained positive when sports was halted last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"For almost ten months, we haven't had any tournaments. It was the first time I have spent so much time with family members. I made sure to stay positive because it was a really tough time," said Sindhu, who made the most of the pandemic and improved her game.

"I think it was the right time to learn about new skills and techniques. Which really became useful to me, and it has helped me to improve my game," added Sindhu, who ranks No. 7 in the world.

While World Championships bronze medalist Sai Praneeth, and the young pair of Sattiwksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will represent India in men's singles and men's doubles events, respectively at the Tokyo Olympics, Sindhu is the only female shuttler from India to have qualified for the prestigious event. Sindhu, who suffered a heartbreaking loss to Carolina Marin in the Rio Games' final in 2016, is seeded sixth at the Tokyo Olympics.

"Preparations are going on really well. Skill-wise and technique-wise, it has been on point. On the court, I am trying to make every shot as precise as I can. It has been really helpful. This is the longest I have been training. Otherwise, we never get this much time to train because of the tournaments," Sindhu said further.

The badminton competitions at the Tokyo Games are set to begin on July 24. The upcoming edition of the Olympics was initially scheduled to be held in 2020 but was pushed by a year because of the pandemic. The multi-country event will take place from July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo and will not allow international spectators.