PBL 2018: Saina Nehwal's pull-out surprises PV Sindhu

The Premier Badminton League made its foray into the Northeast as Guwahati hosted the opening ceremony for the 2018 season. With a team from the region also making its way to the League in the form of North Eastern Warriors, the region has its first taste of quality badminton.

Chennai Smashers' star shuttler PV Sindhu expressed her surprise as Saina Nehwal was ruled out of her much-anticipated clash in the tie against Awadhe Warriors in Guwahati, on Sunday.

Despite missing their ace shuttler, however, Awadhe came through in the end, defeating defending Champions Chennai in the end. Sindhu, who defeated Sai Uttejita R in her match, expressed her surprise at not facing Saina in the women's singles encounter.

“I thought Saina would play, as I was prepared to play her. But when the team list was out we knew that she wouldn’t play so we couldn’t do anything about it, and as my game was at the last I had enough time to prepare for the tie,” Sindhu said.

Speaking about the format of the tournament, where the games are of 15 points, Sindhu said that the shuttlers cannot afford to fall behind in the shorter games.

“In the 15-point game, you don’t really have much chance to make a comeback. If you give away to many points in the starting as it becomes difficult to overcome the gap, so you really have to be more cautious from the first point, otherwise it's the same,” Sindhu said.

The Olympic silver medalist also mentioned that they would be looking at the positives from the tie and look to improve on their mistakes. She also sounded appreciative of the fact that their next game is on the 27th which leaves them with ample time to practice and get better.