Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy moved up by two places to 14th rank, which is their highest in the World Badminton Rankings
Chandigarh: Title at the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships last week has catapulted Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy up by two places to 14th rank, which is their highest in the World Badminton Rankings.
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Ecstatic about his recent achievements, Pranaav said it to be a wonderful feeling. “Definitely it’s a wonderful feeling and it is always a pleasure to win in front of our home crowd. The title at Syed Modi International also becomes special as it is our first Grand Prix Gold title and also the first tournament after my marriage,” said Praanav, who got married to badminton player Pradyna Gadre in December last year.
Terming the finals where Sikki-Pranaav had got the better of Ashwini Ponappa and B. Sumeeth Reddy 22-20, 21-10 to be the toughest match on their way to the title, Praanav said, “I think it was the finals only because they are someone who practices with us together and we all know each other's game quite well.”
Talking about his bonding with Sikki, the Ludhiana youngster said that Sikki and he have improved their understanding a lot on the court. “Sikki and I have improved our understanding a lot on the court and possibly think alike which helps us to take decisions as we know that we both are at the same page.”
Speaking about the strengths of his partner, Pranaav said that Sikki had a very good control on the net. “She also has a very good touch on the soft strokes of the game. Her service is quite tricky and becomes difficult for the opponent to read it,” said the 24-year-old.
Informing about his immediate future plans, Pranaav said that they would be playing the next tournament in Vietnam in the Badminton Asia Team Championship from February 13-19.
Happy with his career-best ranking, the youngster said, “We are getting higher in the ranking with every tournament we play and that is just an amazing feeling as it has been very long since anyone has performed well after Jwala Gutta and V Diju in mixed doubles for India. We are aiming to just go higher and higher.”
“Our plan is to keep training together to get the consistency in the game and get our coordination even stronger. We have really grown as a pair in terms of coordination with each other on court and we keep finding ways to get it better and better with each training session we play together,” said Pranaav
