Supanida Katethong dropped to her knees and let loose a victorious roar because the shuttle landed large on her forehand facet. Throughout the web, PV Sindhu lower a forlorn determine. The scoreline of 21-14, 22-20 speaks of a futile late surge, however for the 45 minutes that the Indian and her Thai opponent spent on the court docket, there was rarely a doubt as to who stole the present.
Ranked 30 on the planet — 23 rungs under the two-time Olympic medallist – Katethong exploited Sindhu’s sluggishness and evident rust to stun the raucous crowd into silence. With that, India’s top-ranked female and male shuttlers ended their India Open marketing campaign on the opening day itself — world No 9 HS Prannoy had gone right down to compatriot Lakshya Sen in straight video games earlier within the day.
The Supanida encounter was at all times going to be a possible banana pores and skin for Sindhu. The 27-year-old had misplaced to the identical opponent on the similar venue final yr in a three-game semi-final and whereas Sindhu exacted revenge twice — on the Syed Modi Worldwide quarter-final and Swiss Open semis — she was stretched to 3 video games on each events.
A naturally attacking participant who tormented Sindhu along with her leap smashes final yr, Supanida chucked the tactic utterly on Tuesday. As an alternative, she performed Sindhu on the web, asking the Indian to lunge and retrieve whereas setting her up for an overhead return. Sindhu, coming off a five-month damage layoff following a stress fracture in her left ankle, was approach off her greatest.
Supanida hardly ever gave her house to assault and punished Sindhu’s light lobs from the web at will. The primary recreation was notably chastening when the Thai got here flying off the blocks and raced to a 4-0 lead. As the sport wore on, Supanida introduced out her exact cross court docket drops that had Sindhu lunging in useless.
“The plan was to play her on the internet as a lot as attainable, that is what the coach advised me,” the 25-year-old Thai mentioned.
Her 9-2 lead quickly grew to become 11-4, and though Sindhu pulled it right down to 13-11, 18 minutes is all it took for Supanida — who served a concoction of angles, deft touches, and highly effective photographs — to take the primary recreation 21-14, fittingly with one other error on the internet from Sindhu.
“You must go in each recreation with a special tactic. If you’re utilizing the identical tactic in each match, it will be bye-bye very quickly. I modify techniques in each match, typically on every level. Everybody is aware of Sindhu is an attacking participant, so I modified the techniques this time,” mentioned Supanida’s coach Kim Ji-hyun, who coached Sindhu to World Championships glory in 2019, explaining her ward’s resolution to commerce leap smashes for deft internet play.
Sindhu’s examination on the internet continued within the second recreation, and with drift not being a significant factor, Supanida, who had by now settled into a pleasant rhythm, went about her gameplan.
Two moments stood out on this passage that underlined Sindhu’s travails. Trailing 3-5, she was made to dive to her forehand facet to retrieve a depraved cross court docket drop. Her flailing arm might meet solely the skinny air as stayed on all fours for a couple of inordinate seconds earlier than slowly discovering her toes.
Then, having long-established a mini restoration and trailing 17-16, Sindhu was confronted with one other cross court docket drop, this time the shuttle dying to her left. Once more, a full-length dive was not sufficient and as Sindhu bought up, she banged her racquet on the court docket in frustration.
Nonetheless, she managed to take it to 19-all when the Thai participant’s raise went large after skimming the web however the latter took the sport and match when a Sindhu forehand landed large.
“I believe she performed very nicely. We have been ready for Sindhu as a result of she is such a great attacking participant. I believe she managed the strain conditions very nicely,” mentioned Kim.
Saina, Lakshya win
Later, Saina Nehwal rolled again years to beat Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt 21-17, 12-21, 21-19 in 63 minutes to advance to the following spherical. Visibly lighter and considerably fleeter, Saina confirmed trademark tenacity to get the higher of the world No 24.
“Over the past 2-3 months there was a gradual enchancment in my recreation. However at present I might see that I labored on my stamina and total hitting recreation,” mentioned Saina who was coming off a troublesome three-game loss to world No 10 Yue Han in Malaysia.
“I’ve been getting actually powerful opponents from the primary spherical, however I’ve to win some matches to get to the higher rounds in any other case I must carry on dealing with powerful opponents early on. I’ve to win such matches to realize confidence in opposition to the highest 10 gamers as nicely,” the previous world No 1 added.
In the meantime, Lakshya Sen put up a defensive masterclass in opposition to compatriot HS Prannoy to win his opener 21-14, 21-15 in 45 minutes. Prannoy, who had a troublesome three-game loss to Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in Malaysia Open quarters 4 days again, struggled for rhythm all through the encounter whereas Lakshya used the gradual court docket to his benefit.
“I wished to start out from the place I left off final yr. We all know one another’s video games inside out. It is unlucky that me and Prannoy have been paired in the identical group once more,” mentioned the defending champion.