PV Sindhu’s 2017 was better than her remarkable 2016, Dubai defeat doesn’t change that

Deep into the deciding game of the women’s singles title clash of the Dubai World Superseries Finals, India’s chief national coach Pullela Gopichand, who is usually very restrained, was almost falling out of his chair while trying to motivate his ward, PV Sindhu.

The rallies had gotten longer and the deciding game was in no hurry to end with both Sindhu and her opponent, top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, digging deep into their reserves. As 13-13 became 14-14, 15-15 and then eventually 19-19, Sindhu was gasping for breath and trying to take as many breathers as she could, even as the clock ticked over 90 minutes.

At this point, there was no use going into tactics. Gopichand knew that all his ward needed was the encouragement to keep her on her feet as long as she needed to. He was talking, rather screaming, in Telugu with his fists clenched. One of the few English words that could be heard, along with “Come on!” was “energy”.

Gopichand had never been this animated even during the Olympics final last year, when Sindhu had conceded a one-game lead to go down in three to then world No 1 Carolina Marin. He wasn’t anywhere near as vocal in that epic world championship final in August, when Sindhu was again taken to three games by another diminutive Japanese, Nozomi Okuhara, before losing 19-21, 22-20, 20-22.

Losing another major final

But even though Sindhu had avenged those two losses by beating Marin and Okuhara in the finals of the two Superseries tournaments she won this year – in India and Korea – winning the Dubai final would have been important for Sindhu’s confidence.

It wasn’t the Olympics, or the world championship, but this was a tournament where the top eight players in the world in a season locked horns. It was definitely bigger than any Superseries final and Gopichand knew that he needed to push Sindhu to retrieve that last drop of juice left in her tank.

In the end, Sindhu committed two unforced errors to concede the championship to Yamaguchi.

“At 19-all it was anybody’s game and there was nothing that I could do different at that stage,” she told reporters after the match.

What is she doing wrong, then, in these major finals? Not a lot, according to former national champion Trupti Murgunde. “When you’re at 19-19 or 20-20, it’s just luck and your mental strength that matters at that point,” she said.

“Sindhu has decent fitness to last for these kinds of matches but a little more also can help because there are times when it looks like she is lasting the match but her stroke strength goes down. If she has a bit more strength in her strokes, she will last longer. If she has any mental blocks towards the end, her stroke strength can actually cover up,” she added.

While Sindhu could not have done much to affect the result towards the end of the match, she erred by allowing Yamaguchi to play her game, according to Murgunde. As the match got longer, so did the frequency and length of the rallies, and the Japanese are very comfortable with that, as Okuhara and Yamaguchi have shown this year.

“Sindhu has got that attacking game, she’s got those deep and downward strokes,” said Murgunde. “She should have capitalised more on that and tried to finish the rallies much faster. Akane is a player who doesn’t give up no matter what situation she is in. She will keep rallying and she is good with her retrieving game. To a certain extent, not finishing rallies earlier cost Sindhu in the final. And when you lose two-three long rallies it affects you mentally.”

Remarkable year

The Dubai defeat, though, should not take away from the otherwise remarkable year Sindhu has had. While her Olympic silver last year catapulted her to fame, she has actually stepped it up in the 18 months since.

She won her first ever Superseries title in November last year and followed it up with two more in 2017, apart from bagging silver at the world championships and the Dubai Superseries Finals. In total, she has played seven major finals since Rio.

“I’d give her a nine on 10 this year,” said Arvind Bhat, one of India’s national coaches. “It would have been 10/10 if she had managed to win one of these big events but it’s definitely been a great ride for her since the Olympics.”

Asked to go into the specifics of what Sindhu and her coaches should be working on as the 2017 season ended, Bhat said that there were a lot of minor things she can improve on. “Badminton has a lot of parameters – mental, physical, stroke-play, movements, temperament. Everything will improve over a period of two-three years from now. Once all these aspects start improving, her mental strength will also get better along with that. These things go hand in hand.”

Both Bhat and Murgunde stressed on the fact that it’s often forgotten that Sindhu is only 22. Her achievements over the last 18 months, since that Olympic silver, have raised expectations exponentially to a point where it is assumed she should win every tournament she participates in. But she is still a work in progress.

“She can only get better,” said Bhat. “There’s a long way to go.”