Another dent in the Chinese wall

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What’s unchanged in the last three seasons is just how much the Chinese have failed to deal with her brand of aggressive play. They might have figured out her shortcomings after threadbaring her game, but they sure don’t seem to be able to execute a counter. Sindhu’s success against Chinese was never a fluke, but now it is acquiring epic proportions of dread and menace for shuttle’s powerhouse. “It was a good win. Should she win tomorrow and get a medal, then this win will make more sense,” coach Gopichand said, raising the bar for his ward, insisting that the medal was what she needed to be focussed on. “Or then this win could simply be called ‘impressive’,” he added.

It was a sensational day for India’s women shuttlers as all the leading lights – Saina Nehwal as well as Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponappa alongwith Sindhu marched into the quarterfinals. In the pre-quarters, Sindhu’s dominance in attack was made more lethal by the addition of shuttle control. Comprehending the drift involves not just judging how hard to hit the shuttle as it moves a few inches left-to-right in flight, but also which ones to leave alone, and Sindhu’s calls were better than her rival on the day.

Xuerui’s shots would routinely exceed its trajectory and land further than where she intended them to. It helped that Sindhu was moving well, playing the rallies at a fast clip and piling on the pressure. “Drift was not devilish. Shuttles were generally fast for the match. But under pressure all things look exaggerated,” Gopichand added.

Returning from foot injury, Sindhu hardly looked ruffled by the big occasion she had walked into so soon after emerging from the long layoff. The start was crucial and Sindhu dominated the Chinese, never conceding the lead even once in the opening set which she won 21-17. She’d tease Xuerui in the mid-set, allowing her openings in which the Chinese would be lulled into believeing there had been a shift in momentum as she won 21-14 with some grand-looking winners. But Xuerui had underestimated just how well Sindhu had been playing from the side of the court with the drift. The Chinese led at 11-7 in the decider before the players changed court sides.

Sindhu started inducing errors in her opponent with clears and lifts that hovered threateningly and caused uncertainty in the Chinese champ’s mind. Xuerui would hit many long, a few wide, from mid-court, and fail to check the power she was imparting on her drives and pushes. Sindhu caught up at 13-all and during a fast exchange of parallels on 15-16 in the decider, she lifted a tap exquisitely which Xuerui failed to cover leading to slumped shoulders from the Chinese. Sindhu was relentless after that and raced to a roaring victory, to continue her subduing of the Chinese. Next up in the quarters is Korean Sun Ji Hyun (against whom the Indian enjoys a 3-1 advantage).

Jwala-Ashwini shine

The other scorching upset of the day came from women’s doubles pairing of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa after they gritted out a 21-15, 18-21, 21-19 win against Japanese sixth seeds Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda.

The Japanese found the going tough against the Indian left-right combination, and were especially rattled by Jwala Gutta’s offensive at the net as she regularly pierced the gaps left open by the higher-ranked opponents with her deft racquet angles.

The decider went neck-to-neck but Jwala broke off at 16-all looming at the net and getting a succession of crosscourt winners, before the Indians held off the Japanese who couldn’t outgun the Indian duo.

Saina Nehwal stuttered to a 0-7 start against Sayaka Takahashi but wasn’t bothered much by the Japanese thereafter. The 47-minute 21-18, 21-14 victory — with the initial scare factored into the match — was just enough to prep her for the biggest challenge she faces at Jakarta — of having to face Yihan Wang in the quarters for a shot at the medal. Yihan, Olympic silver medallist, though was dragged into a three setter by Bae Yeon Ju in an hour-long 17-21, 21-18, 21-8 win where she expended much energy trailing for half the match, before she turned it on to close out the match in a huff.