CHENNAI: So near, and yet so far! On any other day, whatever PV Sindhu came up with in the women’s final of the Badminton World Championships would have been enough for her to claim gold. Not so on Sunday, when she was up against an inspired Nozomi Okuhara, who was playing as if she knew this match could only end one way.
The closest Sindhu got was two points away from gold. In the end, the scoreline read 21-19, 20-22, 22-20 in favour of the Japanese. Yet this doesn’t feel like a defeat, not like her Rio Olympic final loss to Carolina Marin felt. That was a humbling loss to a superior player. This was impossible to call till the last point, a battle between two warriors of great skill, yet even greater resolve.
The match went a whopping 109 minutes and there was a 73-shot rally that was impossible to look away from. By the middle of the third set, it was clear that both players had exhausted their physical reserves. The mind was the only thing keeping them going.
But as spectacular as Sindhu was, her flashes of brilliance was overshadowed by Okuhara’s almost scary resolve to not lose. Twice the Japanese — the first from her country to enter an individual World Championships final — conceded big leads to Sindhu, both times she caught up. Okuhara was who Sindhu beat in the semifinals in Rio.
As bitter as the defeat was, the podium was a sight to behold for Indian badminton fans — on it were two of their kind, Saina Nehwal and Sindhu. The latter, who has already got an entire country to watch badminton twice now, is still only 22. The day may have been grim, but the future sure is bright.