BENGALURU: PV Sindhu has hardly had any time to breathe after her historic Worlds win. Everywhere she goes, the reception has been overwhelming. It was the same in the city as the Hyderabad girl attended three different events, greeting people with a pleasant smile.
With the Olympics less than a year away, talk of a medal there has already started. Her Worlds gold has increased expectations. And her performance since 2018 shows the shuttler is on the right path.
At the Worlds, she beat top players like Tai Tzu-ying, Chen Yu Fei and Nozomi Okuhara. In fact, her performance against big names has been mighty impressive over the last 20 months. Sindhu’s head-to-head against Japanese players like Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara read 5-3 and 5-2.
World No 1 Yamaguchi has defeated Sindhu in her last two matches. But it should not be a great concern given her consistency of late against three of the higher-ranked opponents — Yu Fei (2), Tzu-ying (3) and Okuhara (4) — in the BWF ranking. She has begun to dominate proceedings, winning her last two encounters against each of them.
Victories against players like Okuhara and Tzu-ying, who are quick and swift across the court will be a confidence-booster, according to Sindhu.
“Such wins (against big players) are surely going to help me. It will give me the confidence to move to a higher level in the future. I hope I do well carrying this confidence forward into my matches. At the same time, on the women’s circuit, on that day whoever plays well and gives their best can be the winner. Everybody has a different style of play and strategy on the court. We need to strategise and play accordingly,” she said.
Amongst the current top-ranked players, very few have been able to dominate her on the court. Sindhu’s record against Ratchanok Intanon (ranked 6) and He Bing Jia (7) is 2-0 and 2-1 respectively. Even her nemesis, Tzu-ying, who has defeated Sindhu 10 times in 15 matches, has a 2-2 record against her since 2018.
“I have been changing a few things here and there. It is important because at every event, a player comes with new strategies and strokes. So it is important to change things and be equally strong. For me, that has worked,” said Sindhu.