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What’s the story?
Indian badminton star PV Sindhu has established herself as a force to reckon with, thanks to her numerous exploits on the circuit in the last few months. Her relentlessly aggressive game has thus made her a huge threat for any of the big names on the BWF Tour.
The latest player to vindicate this fact is the World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, who has admitted that she finds the lanky Indian a tough opponent. Tai gave her thoughts on Sindhu to the Times of India at the ongoing World Superseries Finals in Dubai where she has pointed out that Sindhu’s fast and powerful play makes her dangerous.
“She is quite tall and strong. I always find it very tough to play against her. She is very fast on the court and packs her strokes with a lot of power,” Tai commented on Sindhu, as quoted by the Times of India.
In case you didn’t know
PV Sindhu lost her last match to this very player. The Pullela Gopichand protégé, who looked reinvigorated at the Hong Kong Open last month, was stopped in the final by the numero uno player, who successfully defended her title with a 21-18, 21-18 victory.
The heart of the matter
Tai, who will make her debut at the Premier Badminton League at the end of December, herself has had a scintillating season where she triumphed in as many as five Superseries tournaments. The top-ranked player has won her last four matches against Sindhu and has an 8-3 edge over the World Championships silver medallist.
The record itself proves that despite her difficulty in countering Sindhu’s attacking brand of badminton, she has indeed found out a way to trouble the Indian. The 5 feet 4 inch girl uses her highly deceptive strokes to move the Indian all over the court in order to rob her of her confidence and that is what she has admitted.
“I make her move a lot on the court. I keep her busy by regularly hitting the shuttle to the corners,” the 23-year-old said.
What’s next?
PV Sindhu has progressed into the semi-finals of the Dubai World Superseries Finals for the second year in a row. She will play her final group match against the World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi on Friday and the winner of this match will go on to top the group.
In contrast, Tai Tzu Ying’s road ends on Friday at the season finale. The Chinese Taipei ace has had mixed fortunes so far, winning one match and losing the other.
Author’s take
Sindhu’s fearlessness and unwavering self-belief on the court are the very reasons why she has climbed up the charts so fast in the last one year. Since her Rio glory, she has taken it a step further, injecting her game with the much-required consistency, which was earlier missing.
While stroke-makers like Tai are still a bit of concern for her, here’s hoping she will find out a way to challenge them soon.
