6 min readUpdated: May 26, 2026 09:24 PM IST
Not making World No.1 never interfered with Sindhu’s claims to greatness.
So, nine years after the 30-year-old reached the pinnacle of her ranking at World No.2, in April of 2017, a clamber back into the Top 10s, can be viewed from two different lenses. The flattering way to see it, is her longevity and drive to stay in the mix, even as a generational transition is stuttering towards permanence in women’s singles.
Avenging her loss to Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardini from last year’s World Championship, Sindhu defeated the 23-year-old 21-17, 21-18 quite comfortably at the Super 750 Singapore Open. It gives her a second chance to cement her place in Top 10 this year after a brief week at No 11 in March. Besides seedings leading up to World Championships at home, there’s no material edge a Top 10 spot offers. But at this stage of her career, a good seeding at the home event could be make-or-break for Sindhu to avoid top 3 early.
These things didn’t seem to matter to the tall shuttler earlier in her pomp — she could land up at a tournament at any stage and fancy her chances of beating anyone once, when she was at the top herself.
But Top 10 scalps matter mightily now. Settling scores, like from the World’s last year, where her end-game faltered against Wardini, now assume importance of the sharpening of a knife on the whetstone.
On Tuesday, Sindhu was determined to get her first win over Wardini since 2023. She has twice lost to the upcoming player, now a World No.6. The quality of women’s singles Top 10 isn’t particularly strong beyond An Se-young, Wang Zhi Yi and Akane Yamaguchi. Chen Yufei, Sindhu and Nozomi Okuhara (who’s back to No.12) have needed serious second winds. But Wardini posed a specific needle to Sindhu, given how the losses were more a reflection of Sindhu struggling, than the Indonesian playing extraordinarily. At the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Sindhu set that bit right.
The importance of winning this was evident, given that coach Irwansyah needed to stay put till the very end to ensure Sindhu got this done. Ayush Shetty was playing a drift-dictated match against Victor Lai on the adjoining court, and eventually lost a topsy-turvy match 11-21, 21-14, 21-12 where ridiculous starts of 11-2, 11-3, and 11-5 decided the result, based on how the wind swept the shuttle. On Sindhu’s court though, she dictated the tempo and the rallies with precise strategy fed to her.
Sindhu’s had a reasonably decent net game all her life — you don’t win Olympic medals without the net game. But Irwansyah has brought belligerence to her net attack now.
She clearly could hit through Wardani, and pushed the accelerator at perfectly timed break-aways. The 5-1 early lead in Set 1 was doused down by the Indonesian who has won her 3 matches against Sindhu, by being unafraid of the Indian’s attack. Where Sindhu scored with forcing Wardani to play from the back court by storming the net was from 8-13 down to 15-all. Sindhu won 6 of the next 8 points.
It needed gritting out, picking the Indonesian’s drops that fall quite accurately at the net. So the lunges were summoned continually. Sindhu stayed strong on the defense, and at the first opportunity intercepted the shuttle and switched to attack which rattled Wardani.
Things got tricky at 13-10 and 18-16 in the second set. But Sindhu was far too driven and alert to avoid errors, to allow any dramatics from so close to closing it out. Wardani was forced to send smashes to the lines, as Sindhu’s defense didn’t falter, and the fifth seed ended up sending shuttles wide to lose in straight sets.
Sindhu’s periodisation for the Super 750s and Super 1000s has been spot-on this year, except at the All England. And she plays another 23-year-old Rinko Gunji of Japan in Round 2 at Singapore, before a possible run-in with An Se-young in quarters.
When rankings didn’t matter to her, she could’ve backed herself to beat the World No 1 each time they met. But the Japanese will be her immediate target. Ranked No 19, she’s been under the radar, and Sindhu will need to parry off any surprises she brings.
Victor downs Ayush
One Viktor’s gone, another has fetched up.
Victor Lai might not boast of the steepling smash and the shuttle control of his famous namesake Axelsen. But the Canadian has wheels on his feet and shuttle fluency that helps him cross the bird in several ways. When the drift decided that Ayush Shetty would race away to win the opening set, and then Lai would claim the second, it needed the ability to play cross shots with precision to decide the decider.
Lai, batchmate of Ayush boasts of that proficiency. Not only can he squeeze energy out of rivals in long rallies, when the court conditions don’t permit that, he whizzes around like he’s on roller skates, and keeps the shuttle in play. Lai used the crosses cannily to win the third set, as his footspeed and Ayush’s contrasting lead feet put the Indian in a corner. With loads to work on his endurance for the third set, Ayush will need to figure a way to stub out Lai, or he could pose a perennial problem. He’s quite Viktor-esque in his shrewd tactics.
Also joining Sindhu in Round 2 were Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty who made heavy weather of the fast-improving threat of Americans, winning 26-28, 21-15, 21-13.
For a second week in a row, the duo got into extra points, and couldn’t convert 3 set points. They also fought back on 7 set points in the opener, before eventually losing the set.
It was easy sailing in the second and third, making you wonder what the fuss was all about in the opener. But a slow start, wasn’t one of their problems. They meet Lee Je-Hyui and Yang Po-hsuan on Thursday.
Story continues below this ad
On Wednesday, HS Prannoy faces Jonatan Christie, Srikanth runs into Loh Kean Yew and Lakshya Sen, back in the Top 10, needs to beat Lu Guangzu.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
