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What's the story?
World Championships gold medallist PV Sindhu became the only Indian to find a place at the upcoming BWF World Tour Finals 2019 as the list of qualifiers for the prestigious season-ender was released by the badminton world body.
With only the top eight of the season making it to the season finale, the Hyderabad shuttler, however, did not qualify on merit as her Tour ranking had nosedived to a lowly 15th. Due to the BWF's rule that allows the world champion to get an automatic entry, Sindhu will get a chance to defend the crown she won last year.
In case you did not know
Sindhu remained undefeated in a memorable campaign at the BWF World Tour Finals last year, where she managed to defeat some quality opponents in Akane Yamaguchi, Tai Tzu Ying and Beiwen Zhang in the group stages before prevailing over Ratchanok Intanon and Nozomi Okuhara in the summit clash.
The victory over World No. 1 Tai was especially significant since it was her first win over the Chinese Taipei ace after six consecutive losses.
The heart of the matter
Sindhu has suffered a massive dip in form since creating history at the World Championships in August, where she became the first Indian to win the coveted gold. In six tournaments since the Basel event, she has reached the quarter-finals just once which should be a cause of concern for her camp and her fans.
If the Rio Olympic silver medallist doesn't manage to get back her confidence, she would find it tough to deal with the rest of the field which is headed by the reigning All England Open champion Chen Yufei. The other big names among the top eight are former world champion Ratchanok Intanon, 2017 BWF World Tour Finals winner Akane Yamaguchi, 2015 winner Nozomi Okuhara, World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, apart from China's He Bingjiao and Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
What's next?
The BWF World Tour Finals 2019 will be held in Guangzhou, China from December 11-15.
