In response to a question on which famous stranger would she like to have breakfast with and why, the 2019 World Championships gold medallist in Basel, said, "Serena Williams. I also like it when people are jovial and friendly and greet you in the morning, ask how you are. I think that is very nice."

 

Talking about her training schedule, Sindhu, who is a medal contender at the Tokyo Olympics in July, told moneycontrol.com that the mornings are reserved for warm-ups and match practice, while she does her running and physical training in the evening.

 

"Mornings, I play on court. I leave my home at 6.40 am, start warming up at 7 and start playing at 7.30. Evenings are for running, gym or other physical training," said Sindhu, who has five World Championships medals between 2014 and 2019.

 

Sindhu, 25, said that she is comfortable with early starts even if she has to retire to bed late. "I'm used to getting up early for practice but I'm also a night person. I used to be up around 4.15 am at one point. Now I wake up at 6 in the morning. I say night person because when we travel, we have late flights, at 2 or 3 am. So I'm used to that also," said the Hyderabad player.

 

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist in mixed team event, however, says she needs to take adequate sleep to recover from the rigours of training and competition.

 

"I need a minimum of 6-7 hours of sleep. I also sleep in the afternoon for one-and-a-half or two hours. And I do my gym work in the evening. Yes, at times the alarm goes off and you are too tired to notice. And then you get up after some time and realise you are late and rush for practice. It's fun and it happens to everyone. But it doesn't happen very often at tournaments. Because then we are very focused on the schedule," said Sindhu.