PV Sindhu, after her silver medal winning performance in the Rio Olympics, has become the darling of Indian badminton, and is a household name in India. The Indian shuttler received a hero's welcome after reaching Hyderabad, where she also talked about her performance and coach Pullela Gopichand, who worked extremely hard for her to shine in Brazil.
World number 10 Sindhu and Gopichand travelled in the open double-decker bus, which took them to the Gachibowli stadium. Streets, like the airport, were packed with people, who wanted to get a glimpse of her. The shuttler waved at them, showing them the silver medal.
Sindhu smiled all the way, and deserves every bit of that smile after her terrific performance in Rio Olympics, where she also became the first woman in the quadrennial event to win silver. The Indian shuttler spoke very highly about her coach.
"He (Gopichand) has always been very motivating. Others might feel that he is angry, but he has been very motivational towards me. We made efforts till the very end moment and made a lot of sacrifices and this is what paid off. Gopi Sir changed many things in the main plan which helped me a lot.
"In last two months, we have worked very hard. We never thought of medal, but we had confidence in ourselves. It is a great feeling and my dream has come true."
Sindhu's silver medal win was never an easy task, with the high number of top shuttlers in Rio. After emerging victorious from a tricky group, her road to the finals looked difficult. But, Sindhu was not perturbed with big names on the other side of the court, and defeated Tai Tzu-Ying (pre quarters), Wang Yihan (quarterfinals) and Nozomi Okuhara (semifinals) to confirm India a medal.
The Indian woman defeated all these higher-ranked shuttlers in straight games, but world number one Carolina Marin proved to be a difficult nut to crack in the final. Despite Sindhu's first game win in the final, Marin roared back winning the next two to win the gold.
After the final, Sindhu showed some great sportsmanship, going up to her and congratulating the Spaniard.
"Marin really played well that day. After the match, we were just like normal friends and she performed really well so I went and congratulated her," Sindhu said.
