BWF Tour Finals: Sindhu will look to end year on a high

India's no.1 singles player PV Sindhu will enter the year-ending BWF World Tour Finals with a lot to play for this year. Sindhu will be looking to shed her poor showing at the tour since her World Championships gold in August, and she will be doing that as the defending champion at the premier tournament.

Action gets underway in Guangzhou on Wednesday and Sindhu will open her campaign with an absolute blockbuster in the making against Japan's Akane Yamaguchi, a repeat of last year's final. Sindhu and Yamaguchi will lock horns to look for that early lead in what could be a very competitive group.

And while Yamaguchi has beaten Sindhu twice this year, the odds are fairly balanced here. The lean Indian plays a very aggressive game that derives heavily from her channel attack from the back of the court, the exact opposite of the tenacious and all-round style of Yamaguchi.

However, if Sindhu can manage even a shadow of her showing from August this year, this should be fairly straightforward for her. Yamaguchi has limited arsenal and can defend only so much on a given day.

Sindhu's real challenge in the group stage will be against China's He Bing Jiao, who has beaten the Indian in their last four meetings. In fact, the last time that Sindhu had beaten the Chinese, two years her junior, was back in 2017 Tour Finals.

Even if Sindhu was to go through to the knockout stages, the road would not get any easier as she might face in-form opponents in Tai Tzu Ying and Ratchanok Intanon. Both Tai and Intanon are noted for their very skillful game and can be hard to outmanoeuvre, even for Sindhu.

First, however, Sindhu needs to focus on finishing at the top of her group to ensure a good draw. She can then build in confidence from.there on out. Sindhu has played some of her best badminton at the year-ending tournament and there is no reason why she woui rise to occasion again.