P Gopichand knows beleaguered PV Sindhu’s game and mentality inside out. It is he who made her a world champion and a silver medal winner at the Rio Olympics. Question is, can they be…
PV Sindhu. Pic/Getty images
The incredible collapse of PV Sindhu from being a world champion to a player losing to almost anyone who can pick up a racquet, is indeed alarming.
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The latest horror show was her second-round exit from the World Championships, where Nozomi Okuhara of Japan beat her 21-14, 21-14. This is the same player whom Sindhu pulverised 21-7, 21- 7 at the same event in 2017.
Sindhu has a new coach now in Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, the former All England champion from Malaysia. According to experts, she must go back to her old playing style if she wants to revive her career.
Indian badminton depends a lot on her to ensure that we stay in the limelight and be on a winning spree.
Pullela Gopichand
So, what is going wrong with her? Pullela Gopichand started training her from the age of nine at his academy in Hyderabad. We all remember stories of her travelling 50km every morning to reach by about 6am and then leave with her father PV Ramana, a former ace volleyball player, an Arjuna awardee no less, on his motorbike. It was the same travelling distance in the evening. Though it is true that Gopi was not having enough time to coach her since the national camps required his attention, he made a good number of coaches and players available for her to train and ensure she got good, top-class play. Gopi obviously knows her game and mentality inside out. It is he who made her a world champion in 2017.
Gopi and Sindhu parted ways in 2019, when she opted to train with Korean coach Kim Ji Hyun. Kim, however, left her in 2021 and another Korean Park Tae-sang took over the responsibility of training her. Park, who was with her till the Tokyo Games, has also quit.
Slow, disoriented style
Meanwhile, Sindhu has had a really horrid time on the circuit. In the last few months, her playing style has been very slow and disoriented. Her tall frame is well-endowed to play the aggressive smash and net pattern, which she was actually playing and relishing. That is nowhere to be seen. She has won 26 international medals including five at the World Championships, two at the Olympics and three at the Commonwealth Games. In fact, 90 per cent of the medals were achieved when Gopi was her coach.
Also Read: BWF Rankings: PV Sindhu slips to No. 17, lowest in over a decade
Sindhu dominated the international scene for almost a decade. She and Gopi made a deadly and unbeatable combination. He made a soft-spoken quiet girl into a winning machine. Simple things against her nature helped her immensely. For example, he made her scream her loudest when she took a point off her opponent. She was very reluctant and almost in tears as he would not allow her to play further unless she screamed.
Her present defensive pattern of play has not found any takers.
Former Asian champion Dinesh Khanna is astonished at the turn of events. “Look at the last six tournaments. She has been mediocre. She lost the India Open, Malaysian Open in the first round and a couple more in the second round. She did reach the final of the Swiss Open, but could not defend her title. The main problem is that, for reasons best known to her and her coach, she is playing a game alien to her; totally defensive. Where is that fast foray to the net to get openings,” asks Khanna.
‘No clarity in her approach’
Aparna Popat, Olympian and winner of nine national championship titles, says, “I think there is no clarity in her approach. She has forgotten the fast smash-net control style, which was perfect for her. But she is a champion. I am sure she will get over this problem. She is only 28.”
Former national champion and ex-chief national coach Vimal Kumar, who saw her play at the All England Championships last March, opines: “She is still young and can make a comeback. But she is playing tentatively with a total lack of confidence. She must get into her old mode of playing and that too fast.”
So why is Gopi not training her anymore? It seems that coach and pupil did not see eye-to-eye and parted ways. And the statements made by PV Ramana and Sindhu herself made matters worse. Gopi maintained stoic silence like an elderly statesman. “Sindhu was not getting good practice,” said Ramana after the 2018 Asian Games. “Gopi did not play with her as he hardly had any time. Gopi was not providing any regular sparring partner or a good coach to help her. She was fed up with what was happening and finally we had no choice but to leave his academy.”
Sindhu endorsed the decision: “I am happy that I left the academy. I find Park Tae-sang really good. He has changed my approach to the sport. I am becoming more comprehensive as a player and going for long rallies.”
To another media group, she said, “I did not miss Gopi at the Tokyo Olympics.”
So this is where we are. If they unite, they can create magic on the court again. Gopi knows her strengths and weaknesses thoroughly. He will know exactly from where to start. They are surely mature enough to know that they can combine and start winning again. Who will make the first move is the million dollar question. They must let bygones be bygones and look ahead. For the sake of India, if not anything else, they must unite again. The country expects this to happen soon, so that they can concentrate on getting a medal at the Paris Olympics and bring glory to India next year.
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