HYDERABAD: The question had become an overkill.
“Why does PV Sindhu win everything and then falter in the final?”
There must not be anyone in the Indian badminton fraternity who had not asked this question. On Friday, the shuttler broke the jinx by outwitting World No 5 Nozomi Okuhara 21-19, 21-17 to clinch the BWF World Tour Finals (previously known as World Superseries Finals). She became the first Indian to win the trophy, which became her only singles victory this year.
The five-foot-ten from Hyderabad looked different on Sunday. To understand how, it has to be mentioned that Sindhu’s game is based on attacking shots. And it has been well-observed that she tends to crack a bit under pressure. However, all those traits were absent in Guangzhou where she engaged the Japanese in a fierce battle.
In an exclusive chat with this newspaper, the World No 6 revealed she worked “mentally and physically” to get over the anxious moments she experiences on court. Asked what she had done to suddenly attain this zen-like avatar, she said, “I worked on everything. Mental, physical, on and off court training. It was needed since sometimes I tend to get nervous or lose patience when I am losing or even leading. All that has lessened by a big margin.
“The thing is that you need to appreciate the point from the perspective of your opponent, that they have played a good shot. You can dwell on the fact that you played a good shot and it did not work. If you do so, you tend to become sad and get nervous. Then you lose many points thinking about that point. The best way to deal with that is to just concentrate on the following point.”
Watching from the sidelines, with chief national coach Pullela Gopichand was Siyadath Ullah, one of the coaches at Gopichand’s academy. “The opponents were ready for a Sindhu who would attack from the word go. But she played the rallies well and surprised them. That was the reason why she could beat so many top-level athletes,” Siyadath summed up Sindhu’s campaign.
Okuhara tried valiantly to make a comeback in both games. The Japanese went from 6-14 down to 16-16 in the first game. The old Sindhu would have found these moments tormenting. The new one looked calm.
While attempting to break the jinx of losing seven straight finals, she beat some of the toughest players in the sport, such as Akane Yamguchi (who she had lost to in the 2017 final), Ratchanok Intanon and Tai Tzu Ying (World No 1). Tai has been the nemesis of Indian players for a while. “Beating Tai after a long time (two years) has given me a lot of confidence.”
She is overjoyed with the fact that she has finally broken the ‘finals’ jinx. “People have been asking me so many times that why do I lose finals. I believe that question won’t be asked now. Now, I can say that I have won gold and I’m really proud.”
