PV Sindhu battles against world’s best, wins silver: Asian Games 2018
PV Sindhu won the silver medal in Asian Games 2018. Before PV Sindhu, there was no Indian who had ever reached the final of any event at the Asian Games. The last Indian to win a medal in an individual event was Syed Modi. He bagged a bronze medal at the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi.
It is also the first time that India have won two individual medals at the Asian Games. The other one is Saina Nehwal clinching bronze medal on Monday. She was beaten Tai Tzu Ying in the semifinals.
Tai Tzu Ying is the world’s best. She is the current reigning champion. Going against her was a great show of courage and effort on Sindhu’s part. She lost in straight games to Tai, who was far better than her competitor.
PV Sindhu had previously lost five straight matches to Tai. The last match was at the Rio Olympics. None of the tricks that Sindhu had promised to use against Tai worked out in the match. Tai had taken on a 5-0 lead. Sindhu had to play catch up all along.
At the start of the second game, PV Sindhu managed to hold Tai off placing her shots towards the lobof the court. But after a 4-4 tie, her strategy did not work out quite well. Tai won with 15-10 points with the help of an unreturnable smash.
Sindhu commented that Tai was not unbeatable. “There is not a huge gap. We just have to be prepared and ready, definitely we are going to break that (losing streak). It’s not easy but if we work on our mistakes, we can do it,” said Sindhu. She added, “There is no mental block, but sometimes you make mistakes and give her a huge lead. You have to keep going, stick to that. I gave her easy points. If I had played patiently and kept the shuttle in, it could have been different. It was not easy to take points from her because her defence was also good.”
Indians now hope that PV Sindhu lives up to her words and defeats Tai in their next bout. Nevertheless, she has made the country proud and created history in the Asian Games 2018.
