HYDERABAD: In India’s largest ever contingent to the badminton World Championship that starts on August 21 in Glasgow, there are medal contenders like PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth. There are also the likes of Rituparna Das and Tanvi Lad, who would look more to gaining experience rather than winning medals.
The injury-prone Tanvi and Rituparna, who directly qualified into the main draw of the prestigious tournament, courtesy their rankings at the time of cut-off, have been out of action for a long time. Tanvi too is making a comeback after the India Open in March, where she retired midway through her first round match.
Having recovered from a knee injury, which saw a slight relapse during rehabilitation in Mumbai, Tanvi is raring to go. Her coach Tom John has set a target for the World No 91.
“Tanvi will play after a really long time. So we don’t have unrealistic expectations. It all depends on the draw she gets. At the World Championships, you sometimes get players from weaker countries. There is a chance that she can make it to the pre-quarters.
She doesn’t have match practice, as she couldn’t play in New Zealand Open,” John told Express. “Having said that, Tanvi is putting in a lot of effort. She is in the top four in the country,” he added.
Tanvi, who shifted base to Bengaluru a couple of years back to train with John, has been getting enough attention and inputs from her coach, which was probably lacking when she trained under Pullela Gopichand.
“Tanvi is someone who likes to train long hours. That gets really difficult when a coach has many wards to take care of. Here she practises for the desired number of hours,” John concluded.