One of India’s leading medal hopes, P V Sindhu, breezed past her first hurdle albeit with little difficulty on the badminton court at the Paris Olympics here on Sunday.

She outclassed Maldives’ Fathimath Nabbah 21-9, 21-6 to start her campaign for an unprecedented third medal in the Olympics on a rousing note.

Sindhu lost the women’s singles final to Carolina Marin of Spain in 2016 in Rio to secure a silver in her first Games and then grabbed a bronze three years ago in Tokyo.

After a string of unsatisfactory returns following a historic world championship gold, she has moved away from Hyderabad to train under Prakash Padukone in Bangalore.

“Yes, it’s been different because I’ve been training in Bangalore now and it’s been more than six months. I’ve been working with Prakash Sir and Agas (Santoso of Indonesia) has been working with him since January. So I think the whole team has been really good, very, very supportive,” Sindhu told reporters after the match, adding, “I am in my third Olympics and it’s not easy because the first Olympics was very different compared to the second one which was completely overshadowed by the (Covid pandemic).”

She further said, “In Tokyo, there was not much crowd. But here it’s like a mixture of expectations and obviously, the atmosphere is really good. My overall preparations have also been really good.”

On her prospects in the events, she said, “I’ve been training in Germany over the last couple of weeks and it was like in the middle of nowhere and I was completely focused so that I get used to the timings, to the atmosphere overall. I hope it works out and I maintain the same form and keep going.”

Reflecting on today’s match, she said it was competitively easier and a good start for her in the tournament and also it’s important. “You know I understand the court conditions and, of course, the atmosphere, the crowd. So, overall, I think it’s like a good preparation for me for the second match,” she added.

Sharing her feelings, she said, “Yeah, it’s a wonderful feeling obviously, but it’s just one match at a time. Even you know I want to take that medal back. But it’s important that I focus on each and every match starting from the first game onwards.

“At the same time, I need to focus even more because it’s not going to be easy. You know there are a lot of expectations around you. Expectations are always there. So, it’s just that you know I need to give my best.”

She concluded by saying, “I don’t say that there is no pressure, but I’m sure everybody else has that.”