'I am very focussed. My target is to win the gold and I will play my heart out': PV Sindhu

The high deep serve is a peculiar feature of PV Sindhu’s game: the serve cedes the initiative immediately to the opponent, who, with the shuttle slowly traversing the air, can smash or drop at leisure. Against both China's Wang Yihan on Tuesday and Japan's Nozomi Okuhara on Thursday, Sindhu began her matches precisely with a high and deep serve. Wang smashed it down the line. Okuhara did so as well.

Against Yihan, that was an odd choice. Not so against the Japanese shuttler, because of the height difference, a narrative that had been played out in the media before the match. The 21-year-old from Hyderabad enjoyed a distinct height advantage over her Japanese counterpart. Sindhu is 5’ 10 inches tall compared to Okuhara’s 5’ 1 inches. That wingspan allowed her a wider reach and all-round court coverage.

Reaching for glory

Against Okuhara, Sindhu’s high services worked. Soon she had a commanding 4-1 lead, but Sindhu’s match was not a reduction of high services and deep overhead forehands to force Okuhara on the defensive and remain stuck to the baseline.

Sindhu displayed agility, finesse, confidence and tactical nous, all to great effect. She did not impose the aggression from her game against Wang, but played with a liberating natural refinement and swagger. At 4-1 up, she produced an outstanding defensive backhand. At 5-4 and 9-6 up, Sindhu wielded her lethal weapon, the smash. At 14-12, she conjured up a wonderful cross drop. Okuhara, winner of this year’s All England Open, watched in despair.

Sindhu’s versatility was a great weapon – an asset with a lot of leverage at key moments and one she has applied with varying degrees of success throughout the Olympic tournament. The world No. 10 might have had a disappointing season, but in Rio, she has defied her ranking. On form, she was worthy of a top three rank. Sindhu won the first set, 21-19.

“It was a very difficult first set,” said Sindhu. “At 19-19, it was anybody’s to win.”

Wobble before the kill

Thereafter, the game’s complexion was different. Sindhu sensed the final was within reach, but the opening exchanges of the second set were tight and tense. She committed a number of unforced errors, wobbling for just the briefest of moments before regaining her regal composure. She produced a few killer cross court smashes At 10-10, Sindhu never looked back, producing an 11-point run to win 21-19, 21-10 in two games.

“[Those wobbles] are an area we need to work on,” said Pullela Gopichand, a badminton legend in his own right and also Sindhu’s coach. “She is a very young athlete, she is 21 years old. As time goes, she will become more mature.”

At times, Okuhara tried to change the pace, but that did little to destabilise Sindhu. At 15-10 she went on a trademark assertive attack and smashed her way to the next point. The number six in the world followed the shuttle with her eyes, stretched out her arms and racket, but to little avail. She collapsed to her knees and closed her eyes with a sense of resignation.

This was the near-perfect match from Sindhu, another vintage performance, another confidence boost – but according to her, she can do even better. “I have played other good matches as well,” countered Sindhu.

Gopichand for his part was impressed with what Sindhu had done. “Okuhara has a great retrieving capacity. Sindhu is also a clever player and she retrieved a lot. She played at a great level.”

In the final, Sindhu will meet sky-high favourite and the left-handed world No. 1 Carolina Marin, the pioneer of Spanish badminton. The defending world and European champion defeated an injured Li Xuerui from China in the semi-finals, 21-14, 21-16.

Her style and strategy are very different from Sindhu’s. The Spanish player has dedicated a lot of training resources to sports science, tactics and video analysis, in part the backbone of her meteoric rise. “She is a very tough opponent,” said Sindhu. “I am very focussed. My target is to win the gold and I will play my heart out.”

At Rio, Sindhu has transformed into a modern top player, combining skill and power, with an overarching cool. She will need to excel against Marin, but, on current form, that will not be a problem.