PV Sindhu walked into the IG Indoor Stadium in New Delhi with an unblemished 8-0 record against Chinese shuttlers at the World Championships. Eighty-eight minutes later, the Indian shuttler stood aghast, world No. 5 Wang Zhi Yi finding a precise drop into the front court to win 21-11, 19-21, 21-17.
“I am disappointed and sad about it. I should have converted the match, it was a close one,” Sindhu said after the match.
She kept a brave face through it, but the loss will sting all the more for how close she came to winning.
In the third game, Sindhu had held her lead till 15-13, with a raucous Delhi crowd behind her. But at 17-16, Wang suffered a hard fall and called for a medical break. After it, Sindhu managed only one more point as Wang raced away with the win.
“I should have been patient in the last three points. I don’t think she had an injury, this was her tactic,” Sindhu said.
Patient is the operative word. The last three points Sindhu gave away were unforced errors, before Wang put away the winning drop.
It isn’t the first time she has let a lead slip against Wang. In their Uber Cup clash in April, Sindhu led 18-12 in the decider, only to make similar errors and lose 21-19, a pattern that points to a larger problem: an inability to close out tight matches.
“Sindhu played brilliantly in the second game. In the third, she had a good start and was leading 8-4, but allowed Wang to come back into the game by making a few unforced errors. It was a tough loss for Sindhu, but I feel she is doing many things right and, if she continues on this path, she will do well going forward,” renowned badminton coach Vimal Kumar told The Indian Express.
The first game was a tale of two halves. Before the mid-game break, neither shuttler gave away an easy point. Wang made Sindhu work hard on her drops, while Sindhu gave Wang no room to land a clean smash.
Wang led 11-8 at the break, but after it, Sindhu made six unforced errors and one misjudgement, and lost the game 21-11. It was clear she needed to raise her game, and she did.
The second game looked nothing like the first. Sindhu mixed smashes with dribbles and net drops, catching Wang out in the front court repeatedly, forcing her wide or into the net. But Sindhu grew impatient whenever the rallies stretched out, and the mistakes that followed let Wang stay level with her, level at 15-15.
As the crowd noise rose, Sindhu didn’t disappoint them, taking six straight points to close out the game 21-15, two winners of her own among them, four Wang errors making up the rest.
“You can’t win it all. Once you lose something, you have to accept it also,” Sindhu said. “I need to go back, sit with my coach and figure out how to improve.”
With Sindhu’s loss to Wang, and Ayush Shetty’s loss to Alwi Farhan of Indonesia, 21-19, 21-11, India’s challenge in the singles categories is over at the World Championships.
Pritish Raj works with sports team at The Indian Express' and is based out of New Delhi. ... Read More
