Aparna Popat: Actual test for PV Sindhu starts now

PV Sindhu registered her third straight victory at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as she downed Denmark’s Mia Belchfeldt 21-15 21-13 on Thursday in women’s singles badminton.

The reigning world champion earlier defeated Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpova and Chinese Taipei’s Cheung Ngan Yi in group H fixtures.

Aparna Popat, who won the national badminton championships for nine consecutive seasons between 1997 and 2006, stated that the Dane’s inexperience was apparent in her game.

“Sindhu played very well and at the same time, Mia was very error-prone. I think it is her first Olympics and the pressure got to her. She was missing her length on many occasions. Two serves in the net in singles knockout is not acceptable at all. But the positive to take out from the match is that Sindhu is thriving under pressure. In the elimination rounds, anything can happen and the results in Tokyo are showing the same. The turtles are winning the races. To keep your nerves and just to get through the matches is also a great indication,” Popat told Olympics.com.

Sindhu had won all except one match against Belchfeldt going into the Olympics and Popat mentioned that the gap in the level of the two players was visible. She also mentioned that experience helps players sail through games even if they are not at their very best.

“It is always an advantage when you know your opponent pretty well. You can gauge the danger but the same goes for her as well. What you do with that in the match is the important thing.

“Also, if you look at Sindhu's achievements and Mia's, there's a lot of gap. She is also the reigning world champion, the sixth seed in Olympics, so Sindhu is definitely the better player. In high pressure matches, sometimes you have to just see them through even if you are not playing brilliantly,” said the 43-year-old.

The Hyderabad-born player will next face Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, who is ranked fifth in the world rankings. The 26-year-old enjoys a better head-to-head record against the Japanese having won on 11 occasions in 18 matches. Earlier this year, Sindhu had defeated Yamaguchi at the All England Open quarterfinal 16-21 21-16 21-19.

Popat suggested that Sindhu should keep her concentration levels up in the second game where she tends to drop a few points.

“Sindhu must focus more on the second game. Things are getting close there at 14-14 or 14-13. Her coach (Park Tae-Sang) has to see that if her focus is dropping at that point. Against the top players, they are going to take advantage of these slips. And they are not going to give you so many free points.

"Today she got a lot of freebies. All her review calls also went against her. It is going to get harder from now on. The actual tournament starts now,” said Popat.