takes on Akane Yamaguchi on Friday

Swift on her feet, and picking the shuttle early, Sindhu went about business with urgency and clarity in decision making. Miyazaki’s breakthrough season last year saw the Japanese teen make it to the Top 10 on the back of a typical running rigour and a bagful of deceptive tricks. But she’s nowhere close to Ratchanok Intanon or Tai Tzu-ying in her disguises. Moreover, Sindhu was in pristine form using her power-game combined with speed to overwhelm the opponent, a decade younger than her.

Sindhu can almost be said to have found a second wind in her speed-game, and Indonesian coach Irwansyah has clearly smoothened out her movements to enable clean lines and faster tactical commitments to which stroke she needs to play, and her off-season fitness work has seen her land in Malaysia rather sharp.

PV Sindhu in action. (Badminton Photo)

But the Sindhu game against opponents like Miyazaki doesn’t get tangled in complications: it’s see shuttle, hit shuttle, let it stay hit. So the Indian didn’t bother to weave any webs, she simply unleashed crisp power-kills.

Most notable is her across-the-court diagonal long drop. An almost-smash, it is leashed only enough to not cross the lines, stay in bounds, but she whups it lashingly on the hypotenuse path, with calm savagery. All she needed to do was ensure Miyazaki was on the opposite flank, and her sword-like racquet would scythe the Axiata air to send the shuttle out of her reach. 6-4 down was the only whiff Miyazaki had of a chance in the first set. Thereafter it was a Sindhu bullet train at top speed.

Not once in the 63 points scored, did Miyazaki take the lead, such was Sindhu’s dominance.

Carolina Marin and Tai Tzu-ying might have retired, but women’s singles’ old guard including Ratchanok, Yanaguchi and Chen Yufei, made quarters at the season’s first Super 1000. But what was impressive about Sindhu’s game was her backing herself to play the ruthless attack without dithering and dawdling away in rallies, and asserting that power will always hold an advantage over average deception, especially if she stayed diligent with her defense.

Miyazaki has neither the big smash of Yamaguchi, nor the craftiness of Okuhara (yet) to rely solely on her lyrical game, and Sindhu made it clear that she could smother all the fancy elegance with a short-back swing on the cutting kills against the eighth seed. Miyazaki briefly attempted to seek parity reaching 8-9 in the second, but Sindhu was hardly fazed, and took little over 30 minutes to reach quarters – India’s only singles in Last 8.

It’s been 10 season’s since her Rio medal almost. But the simplicity of Sindhu’s savagery stays — her attack can overpower most of the runners, as long as she is fit.

Satwik-Chirag saunter into quarters

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy toyed around with the Malaysian pairing of Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap, as he amd Chirag Shetty won 21-18, 21-11, inside of 40 minutes. The tall Indian managed to draw both Malaysians to one side of the court and happily lobbed the shuttle to the opposite back corner, making them look rather silly, as they allowed him to open up the court repeatedly.

The Indians led 16-12 playing their unique version of a tall parallel game that annoys most opponents since it smack them at awkward heights. But the Malaysians threatened to flip things sneaking to a 18-17 lead. Not that Satwik needs needling, but the Indians were quick to stub out that comeback and took 4 points in a row with a compact gameplan that flared out only when Satwik felt like making the opponents look clueless.

With Satwik taking control at the front, and Chirag smashing down stray lifts with decisiveness, the second set barely took any additional effort in switching up plans, as the Indian World No 3, stayed on course to head into the Last 8 at Malaysia, a crown they haven’t won.