End of a beginning

When PV Sindhu took the court on Saturday to face Thailand’s World No. 3 Ratchanok Intanon for a place in the final of her maiden Badminton World Championships in Guangzhou, China, she was perhaps overburdened with expectations.

On Friday, she had ended India’s 30 year wait for an individual medal in the tournament and had made it to the front page of almost all leading dailies in India. On Saturday, there were hopes and many even believed she would go one step ahead of Prakash Padukone and the women’s doubles duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who had won medals in the past.

However, Sindhu had to be content with bronze as she was completely outplayed by rising sensation Intanon in just 36 minutes, 10-21 13-21.

Intanon will face Olympic champion and world No. 1 Li Xuerui of China in the final. Xuerui breezed past Saina Nehwal’s conqueror in Friday’s quarters, Korean Yeon Ju Bae 21-5 21-11.

Sindhu, however, deserves the credit for going this far in only her first World Championships. And defeating two Chinese players on the trot in two days is a tremendous feat.

Intanon was wristy at the net, good at making line judgements and powerful with her smashes, some of which were so quick that the Indian failed to even react. Sindhu, on her part, made far too many errors that cost her the match. Also working in Intanon’s favour was the kind of form she has been. Though both the semifinalists are coming back from injuries, Intanon has far more victories.

She has won World Junior Championships thrice in a row between 2009 and 2011, was the youngest to enter the All England final this year and won her first Super Series title in New Delhi this year, beating Sindhu in the semis.

On the other hand, Sindhu won the Asian U-19 title last year and won her first major title, Malaysia Open GP Gold, in May. She has made it a habit of beating the higher-ranked Chinese in the last one year. She beat Olympic champion Li Xuerui in China Masters in September 2012, Wang Yihan in the third round of Worlds and Wang Shixian twice this year, in Badminton Asia Championships and on Friday.

After her defeat, chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said that “Sindhu is wiser with experience”. “You can only prepare a player for the event but it is for the individual to go through that phase to have an experience,” Gopi said.

“Ratchanok, although 18, is a far more experienced player at the big stage. For Sindhu, this is the first time she is in a scenario like this.”

He added: “Ratchanok played very well. Sindhu found it difficult to control the drift on court and could not recover once she was down. But it has been a great week, overall. She had three fantastic wins and one bad match. It is part of the game. Sindhu is a little disappointed but it is OK.”