Tunjung nets Sindhu in the front-court trap again with drops and half smashes, to hand her a quarters defeat

As PV Sindhu closed the gap down from 15-17 to 17-17 in the quarterfinals against Gregoria Mariska Tunjung at the India Open Super 750, the atmosphere was electric at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The fairly strong crowd on Friday was living every point at the moment. One of them was 12-year-old girl, who had brought a hand-made poster with Sindhu’s photos and one of her own that said ‘I am the next Sindhu, coming soon.’
A huge fan of Sindhu’s, having taken a shine to badminton, she was jumping up and down from her front row seat as Sindhu nailed two winners to catch up with the Indonesian youngster. There was a real sense of hope in the arena that the Indian star was turning the match around, after starting the night with a 9-21 scoreline in the opening game.
But then came a turning point. A 24-shot rally at 17-17. Sindhu started the point well, taking the shuttle early and keeping the pressure on Tunjung but the Indonesian started taking control when she drew the Indian forward to the net. Sindhu did well to stay in the point with a couple of desperate lunges but Tunjung managed to finally find the winner down the line.
As Sindhu was bent double, that fan slumped back into her chair. The match still went on for a few points, but the kid didn’t stand back up… she knew, as did Sindhu. Tunjung went on to win a sensational contest 21-9, 19-21, 21-17 in 62 minutes.
“I think it was 17-all in the third set where maybe some of my strokes were just too parallel and into her hand,” Sindhu said when asked what was the turning point. “If that 1-2% I had played a bit more back, maybe that would have been the difference. It is sad for sure, when you play a long match and lose in the third set after fighting so hard. But that’s sport. And either of us would have been disappointed with losing that point. I’ll just have to be more consent. Sometimes these things happen. Over there, I should have made her move a bit more. The rallies were long, and we had to fight for each point.”
Sindhu poses with a hand-made poster brought to the stadium a 12-year-old girl that had Sindhu’s photos and one of her own that said ‘I am the next Sindhu, coming soon.’ (Express Photo)
It wasn’t a cliche from Sindhu. When she lost the opening game 9-21, it was eerily similar to the Spain Masters 2023 final when Tunjung won 21-8, 21-8. Tunjung was slicing and dropping the shuttle like it’s hot, and Sindhu didn’t have answers. “But if you saw the 2nd and 3rd games, I wasn’t leaving the drops or half smashes or her slices. We were anyway prepared for it, but if the first game wasn’t comfortable for me, there were easy makes. It took me some time actually to get agile on the court. The second game, I came back. And at 17 all in the final set, it could have been anyone’s game,” she reiterated.
Disappointing as the end result was, Sindhu showed promise. For one, she looked sharp in her attacks for the majority of her three matches, despite training for just over a week before the tournament. “Quarterfinals is not a bad result, but for me to improve these are the matches I need to learn from,” Sindhu said.
As for the 12-year-old, the disappointment of seeing Sindhu lose, turned into happy tears, as she got her poster autographed right next to her own photo.

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