The heart can be stitched back into shape and start pumping blood evenly again. But at some point PV Sindhu will have to answer her knackered, pulled to the limit, tensed to tautness and questioning muscles why there’s such little return on all the effort they invest into making her look sensational on a badminton court.
Saturday’s brief testimonial from Birmingham would read 21-19, 19-21, 18-21 against the tallest of small players in the world Akane Yamaguchi, who denied the 5’11” Indian a spot in the All England finals. It was one of those days in sport when the devil propped up a placard that read Talent+Hardwork 1. Hardwork 0.
Yamaguchi is the crazyball of badminton. She bounces to make up for the vertical disadvantages. She had a grand total of 2 errors in net exchanges – she can win a net dribble in her sleep, such is her accuracy.
And she can pack a punch in her smacks that she uses to push opponents back, even while the jumping and striking effort causes a recoil in her own body, like a bullet trigger would. She is indefatigable – but so is Sindhu, but moreover the Japanese 21-year-old has the laser clarity of how to push back any opponent in the closing stages. Some of these talents are intuitive, some learnt. But the class showed through as she notched distinct comebacks in each of the three sets, to bound away with the semifinal.
Sindhu isn’t as sharp at the net, her backhand isn’t always operational and she can’t help it – though she almightily tries – to pool in all the demands of constructing a winner: the lunge, the stretch, the tiring overheads, the deep sideways dives. The Indian has still slapped her tall body with all its inherent stiffness and un-agility into shape and at 12-7, 14-11 and even 17-16 up in the decider, Sindhu had given it her all to put herself into a position to make the finals.
This will be her third crucial loss to the Japanese – either Yamaguchi or Nozomi Okuhara – but within her limitations she threw every weapon she posseses at her disposal at Yamaguchi, in reaching 18-18. The Indian world No. 3 brought out the big booming, scorching smash right from Point 1 of the opening set, and used it generously in the decider to thwart the Japanese. Sindhu’s retrieving – but for the last three points she conceded – was titanic, as Yamaguchi with her variations pushed her to every corner of the court, most famously the forehand corner where the Japanese girl’s moonballing drops landed.
The idea was to pin Yamaguchi back. That needed playing flat at her altitude, and getting herself out of trouble with lifts since the net queen repeatedly tried to catch her out on the forecourt. There were mammoth rallies – 33 shots, 44 back and forths, 26 whizzing zigzag parries – and while there was valour in lasting and stretching them further and further, on this day, Sindhu had the worse of the exchanges in the long rallies. Yamaguchi won atleast 90 percent of them – not on just stamina, but her tactical prowess and sophistication of placement on the kill.
Every piling Sindhu loss holds a lesson, and Saturday’s at All England was how to hold onto the lead, and finish what she started. The opening set had started in a blaze as Sindhu began with a tennis lead of 6-0. The first point came from a scorching bodyline attack on the 5’2” Yamaguchi. But it was in the opening set, where the Japanese covered leads of 5-11 and 8-15 to end up just a metre short at 21-19 that got into Sindhu’s head.
Yamaguchi’s clear message that no lead was safe, as she could chip away at any point and close in. Two moments were crucial. In the first set closing stages, Yamaguchi sent back an off-balance forehand winner – just her ability to score a point from that totally untenable position turned her into a threat. Then there was the massive dive from the Japanese to pick a shuttle wide on her backhand, before she bounced back from the floor like a B-Boy break dancer. Sindhu went onto win the rally, but she also attempted a similar dive within the next two points, and couldn’t pull herself back to finish the rally, which showed up the chasm in their abilities.
18-18 to 18-21 in the decider, went away in a blur, Yamaguchi having rallied back from 12-7 and looking more confident than ever in the short kill points as well as the long, drawn out rallies.
It is at the highest stage of international badminton – against the terrifically talented Japanese who are not just run machines but creative contraptions, that Sindhu’s fewer strokes, the last mile left to agility and tactical nous gets highlighted.
The fighting Indian – one of contemporary India’s greatest sportspersons and widely respected for the high quality of battling she brings to matches – just didn’t have enough in her arsenal once again. It gave spectators the thrills they came to watch, but Sindhu – who looked like she’d tear up when the score went to 18-20 from a narrow call — will have to return to grieve alone, lick these wounds by herself.