PV Sindhu has been struggling with form. The prime Indian Badminton player has now lost to Canada’s Michelle Li in the pre-quarter-finals of the Japan Masters Super 500 tournament on Thursday. She lost with a scoreline of 21-17, 16-21, 17-21. Despite easily winning the first game 21–17 in the pre-quarterfinals match, PV Sindhu was forced into a decider by Li. Sindhu had leads of 14–12 and 17–16 in the third game.
But Li’s five-point run sealed the victory. This pattern is troubling, particularly when it comes to Li, a player like PV Sindhu used to have a good record against. Li has now won three of their last four meetings, which is her fifth career victory over Sindhu in 15 games, despite PV Sindhu having won nine of their first eleven meetings. India’s journey at the Japan Masters ended disappointingly with Sindhu’s defeat.
Earlier Lakshya Sen suffered an awful defeat in the men’s singles opening round of the competition, losing to Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao 22-20, 17-21, 16-21 after wasting a one-game lead. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, the women’s doubles team, also lost early after failing to establish themselves and eventually falling to lower-ranked opponents in the opening round. This loss continues a challenging year for India’s badminton contingent.
Indian Badminton needs fresh faces
Is PV Sindhu’s decline proof of India’s badminton decline? Only Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have won championships in the French Open and Thailand Open this season. Continuing India’s uneven success on the World Tour. This sums up the horrifying year that they have gone through. Indi quickly needs to buckle up to get back in form and win some championships. The shuttlers need to perform at higher stages.
Malvika Bansod was the best performer this season as she had an impressive run at the Hylo Open Super 300 concluded with a runner-up finish. She fell to Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt 10-21, 15-21 in the final. That was the best individual performance by an Indian Shuttler this season. Malvika had been in fantastic shape this year. She won the Azerbaijan International in February and advanced to the US Open semifinals in June.
