Winning Arjuna Award is a tough task: Sikki Reddy

It has been a decade since N Sikki Reddy took a one-year long break from the sport of badminton due to a career-threatening injury on her right knee, that was constant and also sustained in the Asian Circuit.

The same girl was bestowed with the Arjuna Award, receives on 25th September 2018.

The cruise from the beginning to the moment of receiving the prestigious award was definitely not easy.  After the arrival of Sikki Reddy from China, she talked about her experiences and journey in the badminton world. The 25-years-old shuttler recalls, "Yes, now when I get this Arjuna Award, I do look back at what was the most traumatic phase of my career then," as quoted on the Sportstar.

She also added, "Worse that injury happened within one year after I lost a close final to Saina (Nehwal) in the 2009 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune. And, the injury, later on, ended my singles career and forced me to focus on doubles only,"

"It is never easy to get an Arjuna Award, which is truly inspirational to dream bigger, given the tough competition from so many outstanding athletes and I am glad that having missed out last year I could make it and I owe this to my parents, Dr. Ashok Rajgopal, Dr. Raghuveera Reddy, coach Gopi Sir and all the fellow players and support staff at the Gopichand Academy," Sikki explained.

"This Award will be one of the high-points of my career with the gold each in Commonwealth Games, SAF Games and Syed Modi Grand Prix and bronze each in Asian Games, Japan Super Series, Uber Cup," Sikki continued.

When asked about her future plans. She answered, "Well, next year is the 2020 Olympics qualification year, and we have to be at our best and keep improving on the fitness front, maintain a perfect nutrition programme besides hard work on the court,"

Sikki also revealed about her relationship and tuning with her Women's and Mixed Doubles partners. The Champion Doubles shuttler told that she enjoys the company and partnership with Ashwini Ponnappa, who is amazing at the right-left strategy. The pair of Sikki and Ashiwini won the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Sikki also said, "Of course, we have to go a long way still," when asked about the upcoming tournaments.

"We are already in the preparatory mode for the Tokyo Olympics with long hours of training. I don't feel it is taxing to compete in both mixed and women's doubles. We enjoy the challenges," she explained.

Sikki is engaged to the Doubles specialist shuttler B Sumeeth Reddy, and she cannot be more thankful to him for being incredibly supportive and understanding. "We enjoy a special bond as we both are chasing the ultimate gold of an Olympic medal. It will be fantastic if we were to achieve that one feat," she added.