P.V Sindhu upsets Wang Yihan: New era in Indian badminton?

P V Sindhu in action

Tianhe Indoor Stadium, Guangzhou, China Aug-08, 2013: Saina Nehwal is through to the quarter-finals of the BWF World Championship 2013. She defeated Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand 18-21/21-16/21-14. Her next opponent is likely to be Sayaka Takahashi of Japan, who has been in good form recently and is being tipped to win over 13th seeded Yeon Ju Bae of Korea in the pre-quarters.

This is HUGE! P V Sindhu has defeated world No. 2 Wang Yihan of China in two straight games, in what turned out to be a hard fought match lasting 54 minutes, to enter the quarter-finals of BWF World Championship 2013. I can’t emphasize enough what this means to Sindhu, Pullella Gopichand, and the Indian badminton fraternity and world badminton. It’s almost like a new star has been born in world badminton.

I have been reporting about how P V Sindhu has been threatening top players from around the world for some time now. Last year, she made the upset of the year by defeating Li Xuerui of China in the quarter-finals of the Li Ning China Masters at Changzhou. This year, she has done the same, with her victim being Wang Yihan, the reigning world champion and an iconic figure in world badminton.

Wang Yihan was seeded No. 2 in this tournament. Her loss at Sindhu’s hands is not just a shock defeat. It’s almost like the Indian cricket team defeating the apparently invincible Australians. It’s a turn of momentum.

Now more and more girls from around the world will take on Chinese girls with greater confidence. Tine Baum, Juliane Schenk, Saina Nehwal, Ratchanok Intanon, and now P V Sindhu. More and more girls are handing defeat to Chinese players. It’s a great sign for world badminton.

In men’s singles, P Kashyap has also made it into the quarters of the on-going World Championships. 13th seeded Kashyap defeated higher ranked (6th seeded) Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-11, 21-18 in a seemingly one-sided match.

It is a great sign for Indian badminton. 3 Indians have reached the quarter finals of the current World Championships in Men’s and Women’s singles events. Here is a complete break-up of different nations represented in the quarters of the current Championship.

China – 5India – 3Denmark – 1Vietnam – 1Indonesia – 1Malaysia – 1Taiwan – 1South Korea – 1Spain – 1Thailand – 1

Doesn’t it make India look like a rising badminton nation? I am not surprised to find out.