Where Is Sindhu?

It will always escape the dour medal-counters of Indian sport – those who get hung up on suffixes to attach to PV Sindh – just how precious her value is, to sport’s biggest metric: capturing eyeballs on a day-to-day basis. Capturing and holding them steady in the now, in the present. Sindh was born for television. Her game, the contests that reach the critical mass of excitement before exploding into fireworks and how an opponent gets snared into a duel entirely of her making, is the stuff of sporting spectacle that Olympic sports crave, in between Games years. Badminton, with its widely whimsical broadcast schedules, where fans across the world are scrambling for livestreams of early rounds, lucks out when top players hit the tube. In her 10th year since her first major medal – the bronze at the 2013 World Championships, what’s remained unchanged is Sindh’s ability to add a zing of natural theatrics to every contest, making her amongst the most prominent of pivots, the most happening gig at any tournament. The inflection-point in the quarterfinals of the Badminton Asian Championship in Manila – which Sindh edged 21-9, 13-21, 21-19 – came at 16-14 in the decider against Chinese left-hander The Binomial. First the primer: the shuttles in Manila are literally shooting from one side of the court owing to the drift, which makes controlling them very difficult. Sindh was on the more manageable side in the opener and took it 21-9. Binomial broke away at 10-10 in the second from the better side, and raced to take the next 21-13. Even-Stevens, aka Sindh territory, the decider. Carrying a clear plan of keeping a chunky cushioning lead while on the good side, Sindh reached 11-5 in the third at the change of ends. The chair umpire had been kept busy by the duo with challenges as the shuttle struggled along the tramlines like a tipsy trundler at 3-2 early in the game. In court, Sindh’s round-the-head reverse-angled dippers were fetching her points, even as the smash tested Binomial’s body defense. The Chinese smashed one capriciously into the net and her lifts sailed out as Sindh reached 16-9, well on course for the semis. To be sure, this was a mediocre quality shot-making match, with errors hogging the bragging rights to points. Improvisations on this took the Chinese to 16-13. Sindh’s early lead was being chipped into, and it has happened often that opponents run away with momentum from here. Sindh parked the bus. Then something bizarre happened. It was at the end of a 13-shot rally that Binomial’s floating return landed on the sideline, bringing her to two points within Sindh’s score. The challenge was more of a water-sipper break than anything with conviction because the shuttle dropped within inches of her. At the start of that rally, the score on the adjacent court with another women’s singles quarterfinal was 4-1. While the chair umpire was reeling off the score some moments later, both players took turns to declare their versions of the score to her. The Chinese claimed it was 16-15 and seemed to be under the impression that a short point was played out after the review. Sindh insisted it was 16-14 – something the umpire finally went with. Too close for comfort By this time, the other quarterfinal had moved to 14-4 from 4-1, and Binomial did indeed take the next point with a cross net interception that Sindh dumped into the net. Suddenly, it was a 1-point game after Binomial’s flurry of six straight points, after a not-so-straight panning out of events. Still, Sindh showed all kinds of stubbornness at the net to take it to 20-17 and three match points. Three times in the match, Binomial was left crawling on all fours trying to reach the shuttle, as Sindh’s drops stumped her. A 24-shot rally followed, and the shuttle demanded to hog attention, brushing the very top of the tape, threatening to tumble over, but falling to the same side cheekily to bring the Chinese to 20-18.