A little over 24 hours before PV Sindhu took the court for her first-round match against rising teen star from Japan, Tomoka Miyazaki, a fellow Indian shuttler had pulled off an epic comeback at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Changzhou. HS Prannoy, three years Sindhu’s senior, had rallied back from 2-11 and 15-20 down to beat a higher-ranked opponent. After his win, Prannoy said: “At this stage in my career, every win matters,” and added: “…it’s tough being a veteran out there.”
Surely, Sindhu must have felt that this year. She is not one to elaborate too much on how she feels, but last week at Japan Open after losing to Korea’s Sim Yu Jin for the first time in four meetings, Sindhu dropped a similarly poignant line about her struggles: “Sometimes it’s life. You have to just keep struggling until you get there.” Fast forward a week, Sindhu struggled, sometimes suffered, other times dominated, and often willed herself into believing that she still has that fight in her, as she beat world No 6 Miyazaki 21-15, 8-21, 21-17 at China Open Super 1000. Without doubt, her biggest win of 2025 yet and a first against a top-10 opponent since October last year. Sindhu will next face Unnati Hooda in a clash of Indian generations, after the 17-year-old overcame Scottish veteran Kirsty Gilmour 21-11, 21-16
In their only previous meeting – at the 2024 Swiss Open last March – Sindhu found out the hard way just what it would take to beat these much younger challengers of the next generation. Not that the Indian played badly that day, but Miyazaki just did everything a bit better in a 79-minute match that went the distance. Sindhu has indeed spoken recently about what that challenge particularly entails for her ageing body, because the dominant style in women’s singles now is one that involves long rallies, and patient point construction.
That indeed was the key for Sindhu against Miyazaki on Wednesday. Sindhu made a pretty solid start to the match, going up 6-2, playing with decent control on the court, and most importantly, keeping the shuttle in play with her lunges and well-timed lifts. The lead swelled to 10-5 as Sindhu, surprisingly, got a Hawkeye challenge right. In a match that had already witnessed a few net cord interventions, Sindhu did brilliantly to react to one that wrong-footed her, kept the shuttle in play somehow and saw the teenager smash the bird into the middle of the net. The moment that showed Miyazaki wasn’t quite at the races but Sindhu was dialled in during the opening game was at 16-9, when the Indian took the shuttle low at the frontcourt after a desperate forward stretch, just about lifting it enough to cross the top of the tape. With the entire court open for the kill, Miyazaki touched the net with her racket for a fault. Miyazaki tried closing the gap down in the endgame, but the lead Sindhu had was big enough.
But the second game saw Miyazaki find her footing, as expected from the better side on the court. After going toe-to-toe in the opening exchanges, Miyazaki opened up a 11-7 lead at the interval, and was playing with a bounce in her step. Soon, Sindhu evidently decided to conserve some fuel for the imminent decider. Perhaps smartly too, as she has run out of steam in third games in the recent past.
And just like that, Sindhu raced off the blocks in Game 3, a 5-1 lead mostly riding on errors from Miyazaki. The point for 6-1 was Sindhu at her absolute gritty best. A backhand retrieve from a Miyazaki smash was the give-it-all-you-got stuff that took Sindhu to the very top before she steadied herself on defence and won the point. With Miyazaki trying some delaying tactics here and there, Sindhu responded by increasing the decibel levels after her winners.
A 11-2 lead at the final change of ends meant Sindhu was in control but – as we saw with Prannoy – the switch to the far side saw Miyazaki steadily wilt away at the Indian’s lead. Sindhu sent a lift long and the roar of celebrations from a while back was replaced by the calm-down gesture.
A precise down-the-line smash and then a deft hold-and-flick at the net for back-to-back winners by the Japanese made it a bit more nervy for Sindhu, but once more the Indian responded with three quick points for 17-9. Better tempo accompanied by more roaring, constantly reminding Miyazaki of the advantage she held. She eventually held on to complete the win in 62 minutes.
“It was a much-awaited win for me,” Sindhu told BWF later, stressing on making the most of playing from the better side of the court. “I need to win these matches so that it will also give me a morale boost and also that confidence. I need to keep this going. I have been coming close and losing in three games. (Today) I was patient enough to keep the shuttle in play and made fewer errors. I think that’s what I’m satisfied about. ”
This win wouldn’t change the fact that it is indeed ‘tough being a veteran out there’, which Sindhu very much is in women’s singles, as Prannoy is in his discipline. Thirty is not exactly old in modern sport, but for someone who broke through as a teenager – winning the first of her five World Championships medals when she was 18 – the limbs must have been feeling heavier with every passing defeat against players who, during her peak, she would have bulldozed past. She had pushed Chen Yu Fei and Akane Yamaguchi to three games but came up short. And that is why this win against 18-year-old Miyazaki meant the world to Sindhu, as she let out a huge roar – more in relief than celebration – when the shuttle sailed wide on her third match point.
As her social media post read: “Moved well. Felt better. Needed this.”
India's PV Sindhu after her win win over sixth seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan at China Open 2025. (Credit: BWF / BadmintonPhoto) 
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