Because PV Sindhu normalised winning her World Championship medals by mercilessly dismissing Chinese opponents in her path all these years, the dread of the feared opponent from the shuttle powerhouse, nearly evaporated from Indian minds.
When the Indian World No 7 meets Zhi Yi Wang in the Singapore Open finals on Sunday, there’s some frenetic Chinese movement in the ranking charts, to be considered.
In her earliest years, Sindhu even brought on and hastened a few exits of the illustrious Wangs, packing them off from Olympics and World’s, and ending their careers, denying China their stomping grounds of Games podiums. Think Graeme Smith and English Test captains. Chuckle. Now think PV Sindhu and Yihan Wang, Lin Wang, Shixian Wang and then Xuerui Li. Noone defanged Chinese reputations, mopped up the crumbs of their remnant fights into one giant mouthful chomp, better than the tall Indian’s appetite for scalping Chinese shuttlers.
Into her 10th season since she started swatting away the Chinese, as she searches for an elusive Super 500 title on the circuit, Sindhu runs into the newest and most determined Wang – Zhi Yi, from the Chinese stables.
All the best @Pvsindhu1 💪#SingaporeOpen2022#SingaporeOpenSuper500#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/l6eePhiySS
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 16, 2022
She leads Chen Yu Fei 6-5, though hasn’t beaten her since the latter became Olympic champion at Tokyo, though she’s bullied He Bingjiao far too often to view her as a threat. It’s Zhi Yi Wang, the sprightly, combative Chinese with a stern headband, though, who stands in the way of Sindhu finally winning an upper-grade title since the 2019 World’s.
Sindhu’s emergence on the international scene coincided with the diminishing of the domineering Chinese names who would sweep podiums. When Saina Nehwal first entered the Top 10 circa 2009, six Chinese, namely, Yihan Wang, Lin Wang, Xin Wang, Jiang Yanjiao, Lu Lan and Shixian Wang drowned out every other geography in women’s singles.
Two others Pi Hongyan of France and Zhou Mi were China-born talents, having migrated to represent other nationalities, making it 8 ethnic Chinese of 10, almost all of whom boasted of Olympic or World’s medals.
Tine Baun, nee Rasmussen, was the only other non-Chinese besides Nehwal occupying top of the charts then, and it is in the Dane’s late-blooming success which saw two All England titles, that PV Sindhu – similarly built – can compose the late-20s phase of her own enduring career.
Having decided to focus on winning Tour events, and with a murmuration of Chinese starlings beginning to build again on the Tour, Sindhu has her work cut out. She scoffed away at Japanese Saena Kawakami 21-15, 21-7 in the semis at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. All it needed was to not get seduced by the absolute wild shot-making of the recklessly attacking Japanese, for the errors piled up nicely around her, and Sindhu was in the final.
FINALS FOR SINDHU 🔥👑@Pvsindhu1 puts up exemplary performance to comfortably beat 🇯🇵's S Kawakami 21-15, 21-7 in just 31 minutes and cruise through to the summit clash of #SingaporeOpen2022 ✅
Go for 🥇 champ!#SingaporeOpenSuper500#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/douunXYItC
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) July 16, 2022
Zhi Yi Wang will not be so impetuous. She can be deceptively inept in the first set even, before she gathers her wits about her, and turns tables. A bit like Novak Djokovic.
In 2022, the Asian champion boasts of wins over Carolina Marin (puncturing her comeback), Korean juggernaut An Se Young and World Champion Akane Yamaguchi, besides He Bingjiao. Young Wang struggles often against the deception of Ratchanok, though just before the pandemic lockdown, the Chinese had stunned the Thai in three tight games, and can get stuck into opponents, constantly looking for toeholds to ram open doors. She’s quite relentless in fact, and a first set dropped is invariably a cue to a fightback coming up in the next two. So Sindhu will need to keep her desperation for a title in check and keep an eye on the young Chinese’s pecking inroads into her defense.
Sindhu leads Zhi Yi Wang 1-0 in career head to heads. And should start as a favourite solely on her experience. But this contest is fraught as the most pugnacious of shuttlers, Yamaguchi and An Se Young would tell her; this Chinese fights till the end. She is fit and fast, can switch playing styles, is a chameleon on pace and will hassle the Indian, if she’s allowed to.
In the briefest of phases against the wild Kawakami on Saturday, Sindhu was thrown by the pushing of pace by her opponent, and Zhi Yi Wang is capable of stepping on the pedal as well. Tai Tzu Ying routinely shows up Sindhu’s tactical brain freezes, and Wang though nowhere close to the Taiwanese in her deception, has the sheer bull-headedness and coaching backup, to work out her gameplan and execute it. Monochrome aggression – hitting her way out – might not work out as easily against this Chinese, though Sindhu is playing at a good level, with confidence.
This Wang might not have won the big medals yet, but she’s definitely beaten the biggies and is on the cusp of entering the Top 10, parked at No 11 right now. A Super 500 title is tantalisingly close, and she’s hungry for titles. There are no Chinese demons in her history, for PV Sindhu made a name thrashing them into retirement corners as a young one. But Zhi Yi Wang won’t make it easy for the Indian.
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