P.V. Sindhu’s victory at the badminton World Championships ought to be regarded as one of the finest achievements in the history of Indian sport. No Indian shuttler had claimed the World title before; certainly no one after Prakash Padukone and P. Gopichand came close to matching their All-England wins. With her brutal 38-minute dismantling of Nozomi Okuhara in Basel, Sindhu has broken new ground . After a string of losses in major finals, including the 2016 Olympic Games, the 2017 and 2018 World Championships, and the 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games, Sindhu’s big-game temperament had been questioned , even if unfairly. Those doubts have now been answered emphatically. Two years ago, Sindhu had lost to Okuhara in heartbreaking fashion at the same juncture; this time, Sindhu battered her Japanese rival. The 24-year-old from Hyderabad showcased some ferocious hitting, her 21-7, 21-7 win the most resounding margin in the women’s singles final at the Worlds since the 21-point format was adopted in 2006. Indeed, Sindhu was in tremendous form throughout the Championships, dropping only one game — to old foe Tai Tzu-Ying in the quarterfinals — over the entire week. That win over Tzu-Ying, from a game down, seemed a turning point; in the semi-finals, World No. 3 Chen Yufei was simply tossed aside.
The World Championships triumph now augurs well for Sindhu’s chances of winning gold at the 2020 Olympic Games. It is something no Indian badminton player — male or female — has managed. Of course, it cannot be taken for granted, for the women’s field is remarkably strong; nor should Sindhu be put under pressure to deliver that gold medal. But there is no reason she should not be able to finish on top of the podium in Tokyo, or indeed become the dominant figure in women’s badminton as she enters what is expected to be the peak period of her career. Sindhu’s World Championships success will, it is hoped, also have a galvanising effect on women’s badminton in the country. Outside Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, the country does not have any woman shuttler in the top 60 of the BWF World rankings (for week 34); a new generation of talent has to break through. In contrast, there are seven Indian men’s singles players in the top 41. Among them is B. Sai Praneeth, who reached the semifinals in Basel to become the first Indian man to clinch a singles medal at the Worlds in 36 years. Gopichand, India’s chief national coach, deserves enormous credit for the country’s rise as a force in world badminton. Sindhu is his most successful protégé; she is well on the path to becoming the greatest woman athlete India has produced.
