CHENNAI: The world’s greatest sporting icons do not need two names to inspire awe. Federer. Biles. Phelps. It’s the case in India as well. Sachin. Anand. Sushil. One can safely add Sindhu to this list of giants. On Sunday, she didn’t just stamp her legacy as much announce herself as one of the most distinguished candidates for an Indian GOAT. Her achievements in a sport stacked with multiple future Hall of Famers (seven of the top nine have at least one Worlds medal and all of the top four have an Olympic medal) is unreal. What puts Sindhu’s efforts in GOAT territory is her big-game mentality, something that’s un-Indian. Athletes here aren’t known to make the biggest stage their backyard. Most consider the world stage an insurmountable obstacle. Sindhu sees them as a chore.
That’s not an exaggeration. Consider this. She was 18 years and one month when she ascended the podium at the World Championships (Guangzhou) for the first time. It was 2013 and the sport was riding a high on Saina Nehwal’s bronze in London. Save 2015 and 2020 (ruined due to the pandemic), she has won something every year. Guangzhou (2013), Copenhagen (2014), Rio de Janeiro (2016), Glasgow (2017), Nanjing (2018), Basel (2019) and Tokyo (2021).
The Chinese domination ended. A monster from Spain appeared. Two energiser bunnies from Japan burst onto the scene. A magician from Chinese Taipei and a genius from Thailand also joined the wagon before the Chinese found a way again... through this all, Sindhu has not only stayed but become better. She has found answers and added tricks to her kitty in a way that has kept her relevant in a sport that historically favours change every four years. As a result, she has become just the third woman singles player after Susi Susanti (1992 and 1996) and Zhang Ning (2004 and 2008) to medal at consecutive Games.
And she will be the first to say that it has been one hard ride. In 2016, she was a young turk. Whatever she touched turned into bitcoin then. Now, not so much. There have been unanswered questions about her situation with P Gopichand and she is now an extremely private person. There is also her less than flattering record on Tour in the last few years. Coming into Tokyo, she had won 23 matches in 15 tournaments since that win at the World Championships in Basel. In a country that places a premium of results over process, that was viewed as a terrible record. A part of that process involved quality time at the Sports Science Institute in UK to better understand herself. Nutrition, diet, recovery... you name it, she spent time working on it.
That showed at the courts of the Musashino Forest Plaza. She has never looked in better shape, moved freely between the front and back and side to side, kept the bird in play and didn’t appear fatigued even when Tai Tzu-Ying was literally sending her on a feather hunt on Saturday. Crucially, she has also added variations to her game. The deceiving drop from the back court, engaging opponents at the net, the half smash and learning lessons from previous defeats.
One of those lessons from that loss to Tai was to be more proactive. And she showed against He Bingjiao. She hit down the line smashes and wasn’t afraid to kill long rallies if she had an opening. Even if some of Bingjiao’s returns were conducive to Sindhu’s long wing-span (an error Tai didn’t make), they had to be put away and the two-time Olympic medallist used the crosscourt smash to make the southpaw reach further than normal. All these little things counted. There was a worry that she would face a hang-over from the semifinal. That worry quickly dissipated after she took a 4-0 lead in the first game. She never relinquished it. A hallmark of a big-game monster.
Just Sindhu things.