India Open | Sindhu seeks to be consistent after first round exit; Kidambi hopes to continue winning run

P.V. Sindhu was expected to lead the Indian women’s pack at the $950,000 India Open Super 750 but the former champion and multiple Olympic and World Championships medallist barely managed to show traces of brilliance before fading away in the opening round itself against Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen and admitted she needed to be more consistent for better results.

“At this level, you cannot expect easy wins or get easy points. She is a tricky player, she has good strokes and there were long rallies, often with more than 20 shots, and it was important to control them. I knew I had to keep the tempo of the game going and keep the shuttle on the court but it didn’t work,” a disappointed Sindhu said after the match.

She admitted it was time to go back to the drawing board and prepare for the next tournament. “Definitely I need to be a lot more consistent, specially when I am giving away easy, continuous points, I need to break the flow after losing a point,” she added.

Former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth, on the other hand, went from clueless to controlled against compatriot Tharun Mannepalli and admitted a few crucial points made all the difference. “Halfway through the first game, I was thinking why I was not playing the way I wanted to, probably I didn’t move as quickly or somehow couldn’t start the way I wanted, but happy with the way I ended,” Srikanth said.

He agreed that things could have gone either way towards the end. “With the second game I got some confidence and then when he took that break leading 19-17, it gave me a little more time to calm down and try and understand what was happening and play accordingly. A couple of points here and there and things could have been very different. Just 1-2 net cords can change the whole outcome so I was just hoping for no net cords,” he explained.