Sport - Olympic Games

Sridhar pleased with draw

BANGALORE: Anup Sridhar reacted positively to the Olympic draw and the Indian ace shuttler vowed to do his best.

“I am not focusing too much on the draw. I’ll just be taking it one game at a time. In any case, I have my task cut out as every player is going to be playing at high intensity at the Olympics regardless of ranking or previous record.

“My first encounter is against Portugal’s Marco Vasconcelos who I haven’t played before, so I’ll be speaking with some of my fellow players at the Academy to know more about his style of play before I leave.

“The others in my quarter of the draw — Shoji Sato, Peter Gade and Lin Dan — are all high quality players. I’ve played Sato and Lin Dan a number of times before and have a good sense of their games. If I play at my best, I am reasonably confident that I will do well,” Sridhar added.

He said he doesn’t have any special strategy for the Olympic matches.

“I am aiming to treat it like any other major tournament. I really want to play at my very best and am going to concentrate on doing that. With that as my approach, I want to just take it one match at a time and aim for good results at each stage”, said Sridhar

On the injury issue, which had plagued his career recently, Sridhar said: “ Injuries are part and parcel of sports, especially at the top level when one pushes the boundaries in training and competition.

“My previous injuries don’t really play on my mind, I have learnt to understand my body and to have it in control,” he added. — Special Correspondent

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