HANGZHOU: Close your eyes and visualise a peak PV Sindhu. What you inevitably see are her on-court skills. The forward lunges, moving from front to back or side to side with ease and the punishing body smashes. All of them formed a part of her weapons collection. What, though, made the 28-year-old the total package was her durability. She just didn't tire irrespective of the kind of matches she played. It helped her redraw the contours of Indian sport at the elite level for such a long time.
2023? Not so much. After dancing with immortality for such a long time, Sindhu's year has been a peek into what happens when the magic disappears. Her most common result has been a first round exit. Inside the Binjiang Gymnasium on Tuesday, the double Olympic medallist began another singles event in the hope of rediscovering her mojo. She dispatched Chinese Taipei's Wen-Chi Tsu with relative ease 21-10, 21-15 in 42 minutes.
During the match, it was hard to miss a device Sindhu was wearing just above her elbow. A health device, it's one of the subtle changes the new coach (Hafiz Hashim) has brought. "Just to know about my body, my pulse, how much it is... just to be aware of it and what needs to be done" she told this daily after the match.
"We are trying new stuff. I think when you are doing heavy sessions or when you are playing a game, you should also know what's happening in your body, physically as well. When you are physically tired, you tend to get injured, you tend to get injured. So I think to protect against that... also important to know how your body composition is and if you are really tired, rest is required. It's not like you have to train 365 days. You have to rest your body whenever it's required."
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That's partly why she decided to give the China as well as the Hong Kong Opens a miss. "I had to take a break for China and Hong Kong because physically I felt I wasn't there. Going into a tournament and not able to give 100% won't give you confidence. In fact, you will be low (if you lose). So, I thought why not take a break and work on my mistakes."
She was very clear that she has made mistakes in 2023 but said the next part of her journey would be in learning from the lows. "I think it's been a roller-coaster (year), I would say. It happens to every athlete. That's not something unique or different. It's important how strong you comeback and learn from your mistakes because experience and losses teaches you a lot. So, even though it's been a roller-coaster, it's important to just stay in the moment, focusing and keep working."
While she didn't directly attribute one particular reason for her diminishing returns this year, she seems to have felt the effects of the foot injury she sustained last year well into the new season. "Slowly, I'm coming back. Rhythm is very important. Sometimes after an injury, when you are coming back, your movement might be slow, you might not be that confident... so that's when you keep training hard and you keep working hard. Even though it will take time, I feel like I'm coming back to normal and everything is fine at the moment and hopefully I will do much better in the coming rounds."
It's quite clear that the new coaching regime has made working on her fitness a top priority. Will that bring about a much needed second wind ahead of the Olympics in Paris?
