China Masters: Sindhu loses semis but wins hearts

Just over a year ago, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal had spoken about how the pressure of single-handedly shouldering the pressure of the country’s expectations sometimes gets to her.

The world number four need not worry anymore. Her academy mate and reigning women’s national champion P V Sindhu proved this week that she is ready to not only reduce the burden of expectations on the Commonwealth Games gold medallist but has to quality to carve a place for herself in the echelons of Indian badminton.

The 17-year-old Sindhu made the most of the absence of Saina at the China Masters Super Series badminton tournament in Changzhou to move the spot light on her – beating reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the quarterfinals and coming within sniffing distance of upsetting fourth seed Jiang Yanjiao 21-10, 14-21, 21-19 in the semifinals.

This was the second meeting between Sindhu and Yanjiao and it was only the inexperience of the 17-year-old that ultimately cost her the 66 minute encounter. However, in those 66 minutes, Sindhu showed what she was capable of.

The semifinal encounter was a battle of attrition between two players who boast of an array of deceptive strokes, especially the short arm drops and flicks that can leave the opponent flummoxed.

Sindhu began rather tamely and before she could get into her strides, Jiang had already pocketed the first game and the crowd had already started celebrating. But the first point of the second game even made the Chinese coaching staff sit up and take notice as the Indian made her more experienced opponent run around the court and brought Jiang on her knees.

That point began the series of long rallies in which both players looked to out-think each other and it was the superiority at the net that mostly determined which way the rally went.

Sindhu was exceptional good in playing the top-spin net dribbles and create the openings for the kill in the second game. It was just the experience of Jiang that kept her in the match despite the tired legs and that meant that the decider was reduced to a battle of will and temperament with both players looking to summon whatever strength was left in their body to outmanoeuvre each other.

It looked like Sindhu would take the cake, when she opened up a 18-17 lead and just needed a tap at the net to go two points ahead. However, the inexperience of the Asian Junior champion showed at the crucial juncture as she hurried into the stroke and made an unforced error. Two more errors followed and ended her dream run in the tournament.

But then, China Masters is just a start for the affable Sindhu and a title triumph should be round the corner.

In the men’s singles semifinal, Ajay Jayaram failed to work his magic against Hu Yun of Chinese Taipei and went down 21-16, 21-18

Result (semifinal):

Women’s singles: P V sindhu lost to 4-Jiang Yanjiao 21-10, 14-21, 21-19 
Men's singles: Ajay Jayaram lost to Hu Yun 21-16, 21-18