How and why did PV Sindhu fail to medal at Paris 2024 Olympics? Story of ace shuttler's fall begins with her greatest moment
PV Sindhu's loss to He Bing Jiao in the Round of 16 of the Paris 2024 Olympics was a major heartbreak for Indian fans who were hoping for a medal from the shuttler. She was one of many who failed to live up to the expectations at the Summer Olympics for India.
However, those who follow badminton would not have been surprised, even if disappointed, by Sindhu's failure to reach even the quarter-finals of the badminton event.
PV Sindhu's form for the last few years has been well below par and despite the tutelage of Prakash Padukone, she couldn't rise to the occasion one more time.
Genesis of PV Sindhu's problems
It may sound ironic, if not downright contradictory, but to understand where PV Sindhu faltered, one has to go back to her greatest moment - the World Championship win in 2019.
That win was a long time in coming. Sindhu had reached the finals of the 2016 Olympics and the finals of the World Championships in the next two years.
She had also reached the final of the BWF Superseries Finals in 2017 and made it to the final of the BWF World Tour (successor to Superseries) Finals in 2018. An appearance in the 2018 Asian Games also came along.
The lanky shuttler lost all those finals - 2016 Olympics to Carolina Marin, 2017 World Championships to Nozomi Okuhara, and the 2017 Superseries Finals to Akane Yamaguchi. In 2018, she suffered a defeat at the hands of Tai Tzu Ying in the Asian Games final and one against Marin in the 2018 World Championships.
There was a clear pattern visible in Sindhu's performance. She seemed to reserve her best for the major events. However, repeated losses in big finals were starting to assume the nature of a jinx.
The champion shuttler broke the sequence of losses in big finals at the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals final, where she beat Okuhara. With the jinx broken, she went into the 2019 World Championships with confidence and determination.
Her bête noire Marin missed that event due to an ACL injury. But she still had a major contender in Tai Tzu Ying in her way. In the quarterfinal against the Taiwanese star, Sindhu produced one of the, if not the, best performance of her career.
Tai threw everything and more at Sindhu. But the Indian star fought and fought in a most defiant and brilliant manner, foiling all the spells cast by the wizardry of her opponent. That epic quarter-final win paved the way for Sindhu becoming the first Indian to be an official World Champion.
Whereto from the summit?
Having won the World Championship, Sindhu now had an even tougher challenge ahead of her. Once a person reaches the top, the question facing them is: Where to next? Staying at the top is itself a hard task.
Till the 2019 World Championship, Sindhu had maintained an incredible level of consistency at major events. No matter how bad her performances at lesser tournaments, she seemed to come into her own at these mega events.
It had become customary to see the shuttler from Hyderabad make it to the finals of major badminton events, especially World Championships and Tour Finals. However, following her World Championships win, she failed to reach the final of the BWF World Tour Finals in 2019.
This failure - the first in three years - suggested a slight slackening of Sindhu's ability to rise to the occasion. But after achieving the ultimate victory that year, this minor failure was hardly a cause for complaint.
However, as time went on, it seemed like the spark that ignited Sindhu's performance had gone missing. She was now not just failing to win World Tour events but also failing to perform at the major tournaments, like the World Championships and the Olympics.
The same Tai whom she had bested in the 2019 World Championships ended her medal quest in the 2020 Olympics (played in 2021). It's hard to not draw the conclusion that the World Championship win for Sindhu had doused the flaming desire for triumph in her heart.
Since the world title, PV Sindhu has won only three World Tour titles - and these have come in minor events where the leading women's singles players have been missing.
Her only significant achievement since then was a bronze at the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships and the same medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (played in 2021).
Things got really bad in 2023, when she suffered a spate of early-round losses in BWF World Tour events. Many of these losses came against unfancied opponents.
Entry of Prakash Padukone fails to lift the Indian shuttler
It was time to panic and Sindhu brought on board Prakash Padukone to help her with her game. She also took a break to fully recover from an injury and returned with the hope of a fresh start in 2024 and better results.
There were some encouraging signs hinting at a potential return of form. She reached the final of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament in May 2024 and went one-game up against Carolina Marin in the Singapore Open later that month. However, she couldn't win the final in Malaysia and eventually lost narrowly to Marin in Singapore.
More importantly, she had still not beaten any of the 'top' players. It's hard to define these 'top' players but they form the top layer of competition in women's singles badminton.
These players are: Akane Yamaguchi, An Se Young, Chen Yu Fei, Carlina Marin, Tai Tzu Ying, Nozomi Okuhara, Ratchanok Intanon, He Bing Jiao. Sindhu didn't have any wins against them to show off. She did come close to beating Marin in Singapore but that was as good as it got.
Not surprisingly, the Paris Olympics didn't turn out to be that good for the Indian sporting icon. She lost to Bing Jiao in the Round of 16 and came home empty-handed.
What is going wrong with PV Sindhu?
The answer to this question is simpler than it would seem. What distinguished the Sindhu would consistently reached the finals of mega events was her tenacity and grit. In the crucial quarterfinal against Tai Tzu Ying at the 2019 World Championshps, it was this fighting spirit that saw her through to a victory.
However, in the last couple of years, possibly more, Sindhu has too easily looked distraught and clueless. She is not willing to play the long rallies and eke out points. Too easily, she seems to lose heart and start looking at her coaches on the courtside with an appearance of helplessness.
This is the same player who played out a 73-shot rally against Nozomi Okuhara at the 2017 World Championships final. She had also played a 54-shot rally against Akane Yamaguchi in the BWF Superseries Finals final the same year. This level of tenacity has gone missing from her game.
Perhaps, the person whom she needs to get on board again is Pullela Gopichand. It was under his guidance that Sindhu enjoyed great success in 2016 and 2017. It was he who brought out that over-my-dead-body approach that led to the double Olympic medalist fighting desperately for every point.
As of now, it seems like Sindhu's best days are behind her and she is set to go quietly into the sunset of her career.