How PV Sindhu overcame mid-match stutter to kickstart her India Open campaign

The push from the stands wasn’t lost on Sindhu. “I am very thankful to the fans, they were amazing,” Sindhu said. “Especially when I was trailing, each and every point (they were cheering and) they made me fight till the end.”

Course correction

With Indonesia’s Irwansyah on the coaching chair, Sindhu had to correct her course mid-match to make sure the match didn’t go the distance. While she looked comfortable in the opener, the rustiness was evident at the start of both games.

Irwansyah’s message at 4-11 down was to watch out for the shuttles that were making Yun’s life easier on the other side of the court. “The coach told me to relax and be patient, keep fighting for every point. It’s the first match after a month, so play a simple game, be patient. There wasn’t much of a strategic talk per se, because I was already playing well, it was just about the errors, and I was going a lot to the mid-court,” she explained.

“In the second game, the coach told me that my strokes were going mid-court on her side, and I was hitting the shuttles to her hand. I had to be a little more cautious to make sure the shuttle went farther on the court,” Sindhu added.

The point at 14-17, when the world No 23 from Chinese Taipei gained back some momentum, perfectly illustrated the message to Sindhu. She sent the service return deep to Yun’s forehand corner, the next shot was to draw her forward to the backhand side at the net. And after a nice dribble at the net, Sindhu killed the point softly with a delightful sliced drop. Message received.

The backend of the second game made for some thrilling viewing with Yun also upping the pace and defending well. But, Sindhu after saving a game point, pocketed the match in straight games and ensured she saves some fuel.

“At 18-17, 18-all and 19-all.. it was very intense. She was also making sure that she pinned everything into the court and there were long rallies. For me, it was important to attack because she was also trying to keep the shuttle down. The game that way became faster. Playing the third set is an unnecessary waste of energy and then you get tensed, unforced errors happen, so it was important to win in straight two sets so I can get rested before the next match.” Sindhu faces Manami Suizu of Japan next.

Graft and grind

It wasn’t just Sindhu who had to find a way out of a hole, but also Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty who were pushed to the limits by Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun. The Indians, who lost in the final last year, eventually won 23-21, 19-21, 21-16 in a 76-minute thriller. After trailing 10-15 in the opening game, the 7th seeds did well to take the lead. But a slow start to the second game eventually hurt them despite closing down from 1-7 down.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were pushed to the limits by Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun. (BAI)

In the third too, Man-Tee threatened a late fightback from 10-15 to 14-16. But Chirag played the point of the match, defending not once but twice while seated on the court, and arrested the slide. “Happy that we won that rally, it was crucial because they were serving really well, and it wasn’t easy to penetrate their defence today,” Chirag said.

In other wins for the Indian contingent, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto came back from a game down to beat higher-ranked Chen Cheng Kuan of Hsu Yin-Hui of Chinese Taipei 8-21, 21-19, 21-17. Kiran George, a late entry into the main draw, defeated world No 25 Yushi Tanaka 21-19,14-21, 27-25 in a 71-minute thriller.

There was however disappointment for Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, as they couldn’t mark the week where they reached a new career high of world No 9 with a win, going down 21-23, 19-21 against Japan’s Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto.