The Indian mixed badminton team on Tuesday took home the silver medal after coming up short against Malaysia in the gold medal match. Kidambi Srikanth was not able to rise to the challenge and India eventually succumbed 1-3 to Malaysia. Srikanth lost to Tze Yong Ng in three games to put the defending champions on the backfoot in the summit clash. With this victory, Malaysia regained the title they had lost to India four years ago in Gold Coast.
Speaking to NDTV after the silver medal win, Sindhu said: "Well, ofcourse Malaysia was not an easy one. We were playing the finals, so every match was important. I think as a team, everybody played well, me giving a point to my team, I was happy but unfortunately, we could not make it to gold. Overall, it just depends on the day and it was not our day, is what I feel. Happy with this, but it is important to come back stronger now and prepare for individuals."
"I think, now the individual starts, so important to focus on that. I am going to give my 100 per cent. I will give my best, it will not be easy. I would say in the quarterfinals, there would be this Malaysia girl I played against, and if I win that, there would be that Singapore girl," she added.
PV Sindhu did what was expected out of her in the women's singles while the men's doubles pairing of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down in the opening doubles
For India to retain gold, a lot depended on the outcome of the men's doubles tie featuring Rankireddy and Shetty, and, the Olympic bronze medallists duo of Teng Fong Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh.
The women's doubles and mixed doubles were India's weaker links and the team relied on men's doubles and the two singles to get the job done.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu was expected to win comfortably but the 60-th ranked Goh Jin Wei made life very tough for the world number 7.
With PTI inputs