India’s very own badminton queen, PV Sindhu will face a crucial crossroads in her sporting journey. Over the years, she has become one of the best baddies in the world and she aims at clinching a medal in the Paris Olympics 2024 Games, this is however far from certain due to her recent spate of injuries and poor performance.
PV Sindhu won the 2016, and 2020 Olympic medals, the World champion, and was at the no.2 in World rankings. Over the years she has come across many opponents and she finds ways to consistently beat them.
Also Read: PV Sindhu storms into Malaysia Masters semifinals
But PV Sindhu has experienced a series of setbacks lately. She has also been affected by injury around the ankle and knee which has affected her training and performance. This coupled with inconsistent performances therefore raised questions over her chances to medal in the Paris Olympics 2024.
Recent Tournament Performance
A deeper analysis on her performance during the recent tournaments shows that this is not really the case. During the Indonesia Open, she was defeated by a player from Chinese Taipei’s named Wen Chi Hsu. However, there was a close battle at the Singapore Open where she carved out a challenging match against Carolina Marin, though she lost the match. This was evident in the Malaysia Masters where, despite progressing up to the final causing Wang Zhi Yi, her triumph was cut short.
In other tournaments like the Badminton Asia Championships and Madrid Masters, she was beaten in the preliminaries. However, her failure to go beyond stage 16 may raise eyebrows about her capability to humble the top contenders in subsequent games in other tournaments such as the Swiss Open and All England.
Congratulations PV Sindhu for finishing runner up in Malaysia Masters…♥️🥈
She will rise 3 places to be WR 12 now!
I know you all will call it a choke in the third game, but those who understand Badminton as a sport will know what exactly happened.COMEBACK STRONGER SINDHU!!💪 pic.twitter.com/ywG6z4OZ6m
— Parth (@ParthK_23) May 26, 2024
Facing the Toughest Competition
Achieving an Olympic medal, one has no doubt that the journey is not a walk in the park. The current top 5 players in women’s singles badminton represent a formidable barrier: Some of the international and leading badminton players are An Se Young (Rank 1), Chen Yu Fei, Tai Tzu Ying, Carolina Marin, Akane Yamaguchi.
On the grounds of career records, PV Sindhu stands in a very shocking position against these players. She has never defeated the dominant An Se Young, was not able to beat Tai Tzu Ying, she has a negative score against her, and also she has negative score against Carolina Marin. Recently, Sindhu lost to Tai Tzu Ying in the Canada Open.
Based upon the above mentioned points, it is not unrealistic to hear certain experts suggesting that expecting a medal from Sindhu in Paris is out of the question. Nevertheless, this should not take anything from the fact that she has so much talent and has achieved a lot in the past.
Whether PV Sindhu will be able to come past these injuries, get back to her best, and reclaim the badminton world throne again is still to be determined. It is worthy to note that she is one of the most hardworking and highly spirited players. With properly directed training programs and some new motivation, she may become another legend who will turn the count of Olympic medals in her name even higher.
There is no denying that PV Sindhu’s path to the Paris Olympics 2024 will indeed be interesting to follow. Her Olympic campaign may be joyous or mournful, she is a badminton icon either way.
