Sindhu’s poor run of form , Know what is the reason?
Sindhu hasn’t been able to play the way we have seen her play. Her poor form could well put the hopes of getting a medal at the Tokyo Olympics at risk.
The pride of India Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, also known as PV Sindhu, is finding it difficult to play in the way she used to. Her light footwork and attacking play seems to be somewhere diminished.
Sindhu is finding it difficult to maintain the consistency and variation in her shots. Her style of play has become much more different than how it used to be before the year 2018.
Let us show you how Sindhu’s game has fallen from its top in the recent years
The Indian Shuttler came into the limelight after winning silver in Rio 2016 Olympics and since then everything has been history for her. In the year 2017, her most memorable achievements were the World Championship where she was won the silver medal after going down against Nozomi Okuhara from Japan in a nail-biting thriller, and the Dubai World Superseries finals where she lost to Akane Yamaguchi in the final. At the end of the season, she was ranked no.2 in the BWF (Badminton World Federation) rankings.
Her exceptional run of form continued in the year 2018 where she won a silver medal in the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia; World Championship, Nanjing, China; Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia, and other two tournaments. She also made appearances in 2 semifinals and 6 quarterfinals that year.
Her constant losses in 5 consecutive finals led people to call her having final phobia .
But it was all before she won her final major title of the season answering all the critics at The BWF World Tour Finals which is considered as the biggest title of the BWF World Tour. Sindhu who was down at no.6 rose to no 3.
In the year 2019, she signed a four-year deal with Chinese premium sports brand Li-Ning. The deal, pegged at Rs 48 crore, included sponsorship money and Rs 5 crore in equipment supply till 2023.
And since then things didn’t go right for her, perhaps she couldn’t adapt herself to the new equipment as she was previously associated with Yonex with which she was very much comfortable.
Her next appearances weren’t as good as they used to be, her shots started lacking accuracy and her movement slowed down.
She somehow managed to reach the finals of the National Championship with a lot of struggle and went down against Saina Nehwal.
In the All England Open 2019, she lost to Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the first round where she never looked comfortable.
Her struggle continued in the next tournaments where she lost in the second round of Malaysia Open, lost to her nemesis Okuhara in a one-sided affair in Singapore Open, Cai Yan Yan of China, who was a lower-ranked player in Badminton Asia Championship, and Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in Australian Open.
Her loss against the lower-ranked players came as a shock to many of her fans.
She somehow managed to find her form in the Indonesia Open where she won silver along with her most memorable achievement – The Gold in the World Championships, where she beat the top-ranked players such as downing Tai Tzu Ying ( Chinese Taipei) in the quarters and destroying Okuhara in the finals. Her great form raised the hopes back for her but she again went through a period of initial round losses and ended the year in an unexpected way.
In 2020, she went down against Nozomi Okuhara in the All England Open which was the last tournament of that year. She also trained in London for a while before playing three tournaments in Thailand where she lost in the first round to Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark and Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the second tournament.
She was only able to win one group match in the BWF World Tour Finals and exited from the tournament.
In the Swiss Open, she somewhere managed to find some form but was beaten by Carolina Marin from Spain in the final in a one-sided game. She didn’t really play against any top-ranked player and was actually given a real competition by the Spaniard.
All England Open 2021, she saw some daylight as she beat Akane Yamaguchi from Japan in the quarter-final but she lost to Porpanwee Chochuwong.
Sindhu never looked comfortable and struggled in most of the matches between 2019 and 2021. She has been unable to maintain her movement around the court. Her change in the equipment sponsor has acted as a drastic move in her game because she was at the top of the game between 2016 and 2018 with her previous sponsor Yonex. It will be interesting to see how she manages to find her rhythm before the Tokyo Olympics.