Worked on Sindhu’s defence, says coach Park

The 42-year-old Park has been training Sindhu following the departure of fellow Korean coach Kim Ji Hyun two years ago. “Sindhu’s defence is weak compared to her attack. So, I have been focussing on defence training before the Olympics,” Park, who was the national coach with the Korean team from 2013 to 2018, told PTI.

“When Olympics was postponed, I thought that it was an opportunity to work on her motion skills, and net training. We have tried to work on her defence, which has been her weakness. The idea was to help her get some variation from the back of the court.” Sindhu didn’t get much success after returning following the COVID-19 break. She exited at the first round and quarters of the first two Super 1000 events in Thailand and failed to reach the knockout stage at the World Tour Finals.

The Indian, however, made it to the final of the Swiss Open only to suffer a loss to Carolina Marin. She also went down without a fight against Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in the All England semi-finals.

“I know a lot of people felt there was something not right with her physical strength when she lost in the Thailand Open, but it wasn’t so. Fitness has not been a problem. Her defence was the only problem,” said Park.