There may be two Asian girls, Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, above her in the current world rankings but P.V. Sindhu is the top girl in badminton at the 18th Asian Games here.
She has done well at the big ones, winning the singles silver at the last Olympics and at the recent World Championships, losing only to Spaniard Carolina Marin in the finals. But Sindhu feels that the impressive record would not give her a big advantage.
“I think the top ten players are of the same standard so you never know what is going to happen,” Sindhu told The Hindu after a training session at the GBK Istora Stadium here on Saturday.
“It depends on the climatic conditions, the courts, the shuttles…and you will have to be ready for anybody.”
Sindhu is happy that the Asiad is happening in a country that loves badminton but Indonesia ranks low on her list of favourite venues in the sport.
“There is a lot of craze for badminton in this country and it will be almost like playing at home though things will be different if we play against Indonesia,” said the World No. 3.
“But if you ask me where Indonesia stands in the list of my five favourite badminton centres, I would rate it last… there is a bit of drift in the hall. It’s a bit windy here. We had played the Indonesia Open here recently and I lost to China’s He Bingjiao in the quarterfinals.”
With the Japanese in hot form, the Chinese appear to be fading in badminton but Sindhu would not count them out.
“There are three Japanese doing well…(Nozomi) Okuhara, (Akane) Yamaguchi and also another Japanese. But I think among the Chinese, there are some juniors coming up,” said the 23-year-old. The 21-year-old Bingjiao is one of them.
If one takes out the recent Worlds, Sindhu has been a bit inconsistent in the last few tournaments, losing in the final at the Thailand Open, in the semifinals at the Malaysia Open and in the quarterfinals in the Asian Championship apart from the Indonesia Open.
With that being the situation, there will be plenty of close battles in Jakarta.