Defending champion PV Sindhu storms into the quarterfinals of the World Championships; faces world No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.
Good, better, beast.Tai Tzu will bring the shuttle back a second faster, and with hex rotations it will require faster reactions.
Sindhu obviously has tachometers built into his mind and his toes and the clicks of his elbows that increase the pace accordingly. But unbeknownst to the inexperienced eye, an improvement in speed against the Olympic silver medalist from Chinese Taipei will be necessary.
Resistance levels on the 20th return of any rally will be tested against the aerial opponent, whose deceptive shots attract opponents’ quick reflexes, and any loss of energy is punished by his racket frame charging a shot. Chochuwong was sprinkling her all over the opening, and the first step finally overpowered her by the end. But when the Thais leapt from 1712 to close the gap in 1918, the smallest of tremors of fatigue veiled in Sindhu’s eyes.
The Indian would overtake Chochuwong in the next three points to no longer referee the challenge. But he won’t expect Tai Tzu to offer only a handful of crosscourt in response like Chochuwong did, while also extending the rally. Tai Tzu is known to test the retinal faculties and limbs a bit more than Thai. It is therefore this imperceptible top speed that Sindhu will have to hit on Friday.
More power in his smashes, which seemed absolutely effective against Chochuwong, but will be picked up by Tai Tzu. More spice and finesse in his shots because the margin of error against Tai Tzu (compared to the Thai) is like the difference in 9.8 and 10.8 shots on vernier calibers. Less fading on stamina, if Tai Tzu causes an early storm.
The 2018 Asian Games final (2113, 2116) and the Tokyo Olympic Games semi-final (2118, 2112) are the two biggie in which Tai Tzu Ying really punctured a formidable sheet of PV Sindhu, deflating the hot wheels. of the world champion at the controls, flying on the asphalt.
The face-to-face in favor of the Taiwanese gives no indication of the pain Sindhu inflicted on her. A third of the matches the Indian has won, but the context is there. At Tai Tzu’s best at the 2016 Olympics and peaked at the 2019 World Championships, Sindhu denied his rival valuable medals, playing perhaps his most successful matches – offensive and defensive in Rio and Basel.
Perhaps more relevant is Tai Tzu’s all-powerful spirit demon from 5 out of 5 quarterfinals she has been to the World Cup. She lost to Olympic champions Xuerui Li in 2013 and Carolina Marin in 2014 and braked in the last 8 against Lindaweni Fanetri (2015), He Bingjiao (2018) to keep her oddly off the world podium. Even when a bronze slips away from you like this, the threshold starts to feel steeper than it could be. But Tai Tzu’s elimination by Sindhu in 2019, a masterclass in strategy and brain ferocity – perhaps his best game of his career – means Tai Tzu is strapped for World Cup medals.
She arrived in Huelva well rested, after the Olympics, and Kirsty Gilmour just scratched some of the rust in the scare of the second set where Tai Tzu had one of her ravages, wasting 6 match points. Sindhu likes to open those typical error doors and has a grudge to resolve since the Olympics.Unlike Gilmour, Sindhu will not be left behind. He will plant the knife at the first opportunity, if he is not already seizing an advantage, and therefore already imposing his big game.
There is also the matter of controlling the exuberance of the goose feathers on the faster side of the Huelva arena. Tai Tzu can go terribly wrong in controlling the shuttle as it rushes past with the draft. Chochuwong deflected his shots completely from the baseline, moving away from far and barely threatening Sindhu. And Tai Tzu has a history of being trapped in these brain freezes.
