PV Sindhu - The Giant Slayer

For a very long time now, players from China – men and women, have dominated in the sport of badminton, coming out as the victors in a majority of the championship events. They are considered to be the giants of the sport where currently the first, second and third positions in the women’s world rankings are held by three Chinese players – Li Xuerui, Shixian Wang and Wang Yihan – and these three keep sharing the ranks amongst themselves, tournament after tournament. They make it very tough for any player, no matter how good, to get under their skin, as they have great talent accompanied by immense confidence and an ability to give it their best in every game.

But there is one girl who is proving to be a giant killer time and again, causing the Chinese to have sleepless nights. Nineteen year old Hyderabadi, PV Sindhu, has beaten all three of these players in various tournaments over the course of the last two years. She has managed to do what other players who are ranked above her have not yet succeeded in doing.

She defeated world No.1 Li Xuerui in the China Masters Super Series in 2012 and Wang Yihan at the Badminton World Championships in 2013. Shixian Wang was her latest victim who she defeated in the Swiss Grand Prix Gold that is being held in Basel. It was in fact her third victory over Shixian and she leads 3-0 in their head to head battle. She played a skillful game against the world No.2 and stunned everybody who was witness to the match.

However, Saina Nehwal, India’s premier badminton player, failed to prevail over her Chinese opponent , Wang Yihan, in the same tournament. She, like several other top non-Chinese players, have many times in the past expressed their inability to tame their counterparts from China. The pressure on their shoulders tends to double when they have to play a Chinese player and that is not the right type of mindset to have while going into any match no matter how big or small the opponent. And although Saina has all the requisites to beat any opponent, she fumbles at even the slightest threat of a defeat which begins to bog her down, affecting her entire game.

Sindhu, however, has managed to overcome the pressure that the Chinese tend to put on their opponents through their sheer presence. She has various strengths that work to her advantage, some of which are as follows:

Her agility

Sindhu is a fast player. Being quite lanky and athletic, she moves quickly on the court. She plays a very quick game thereby forcing her opponent to commit an error.

Calm composure

Her ability to keep a calm composure no matter how tough her opponent is or how hard she is being pushed is one of her main strengths.

Aggression

Aggression is an important factor when it comes to badminton and Sindhu brings in the right amount of aggression into every game, enough to give her opponents a scare.

Variety and adaptability

Not all players play the same way and one has to have a different strategy to tackle each player. That is one key attribute of her game. She adapts quickly to a new player and brings in a lot of variety thereby confusing her opponent and making it tough for them to play her. That’s a strategy that the Chinese themselves use and playing them by their own rules further puts pressure on them.

Confidence

Sindhu puts on a brave performance when she has to tackle the top Chinese players. She has a very confident body language and never let’s nerves get to her.

These are the areas where many of the other top players falter thereby letting us rest in Sindhu, big hopes of one day ending the Chinese domination in the sport of badminton.