Indian Ace Shuttlers Sikki and Pranaav set eyes on a Commonwealth Games medal

The Indian mixed doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra is on an all-time high after winning their maiden Grand Prix title at the 2016 Brazil Open.

After their stupendous performance at the Brazil Open, the Indian pair has redefined their career goals by setting their sights on winning a medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

In the Grand Finale, the Indian duo, ranked World No. 65, overcame a stiff challenge posted by Canadian second seeds Toby Ng and Rachel Honderich to win the coveted title. The 37 minutes finals played on Sunday witnessed the Indian pair winning 21-15, 21-16 against a formidable doubles pair.

N Sikki Reddy was ecstatic about lifting the title and expressed his joy by speaking to the media.

The following are the excerpts from his conversation with PTI -

"No words to express and I'm so so happy. This title will boost my confidence and make me work harder for many more titles. Me and Jerry were performing very well. We beat world No. 10 in India super series and lost a close match to World No. 3 in Singapore Super Series,"

"But after that Jerry injured his shoulder so we didn't play for 3 months and after that this was the first tournament so this title will give us a lot of confidence to come back to the previous form and will motivate us a lot.

"People will be watching us now so we have to work really hard and be focused. We have kept the target to come into the top 30-20 in the world this year. We have only 4-5 tournaments left which is very important for us. So next year we will focus on super series tournaments and aim a medal in Commonwealth Games," she added.

Talking about the final match, Pranaav said: "It wasn't an easy match as we knew about Toby who was with us in the same team in PBL and we were aware that he is good so we had prepared our self well before the match. Initially it was going equal till the first break at 11 and then after the break we could get a lead and maintain till the end."