GOLDEN MOMENT: SILVER MEDAL

Rohit Mahajan, Sports Editor 

PV Sindhu fought like a tigress, but the girl on the other side of the net, Spain’s Carolina Marin, the world No. 1, was unbreakable in their gold medal match. Silver, thus, it had to be, and it felt like gold, because Sindhu stretched the limits of her skill and her physical and mental strength against an opponent who’s nothing short of a freak genius.

Marin came from behind to win 19-21 21-12 20-15 in a thriller of a match that lasted 83 minutes. “Oh, I had to fight hard but I managed to keep it (shuttle) in the court,” she said. “It’s a very important medal for badminton in Spain.”

Sindhu said she was delighted with her own show. “The aim was to get a medal and after I reached the final I hoped to play well enough to win gold,” she said. “But never mind, I’ve got a silver. I never thought I’d make it here. We both played well... She played amazing.”

Pulsating start

Sindhu won a pulsating first game, after trailing most of the time — from 16-19 back, she won five points and lost none to take the game. After that, Marin seemed to raise her game. “She’s angry now,” said an excitable journalist from Spain on our right as Marin won the first point of the second game with a very powerful smash to Sindhu’s backhand. “That’s Spanish fury,” he added.

Marin had more than mere smashes. Her crosscourt drops from the back of the court were sensational; these drew Sindhu to the edge of the court, and often elicited high returns — Marin had to simply smash the shuttle in the manner of a basketball player slam-dunking. She attacked Sindhu’s backhand with powerful smashes and her play at the net was masterful. At 12-2 and then 16-8, Marin had built a very strong lead which surely was going to be impossible to overturn.

Marin has a game that is absolutely complete — there are zero chinks; she did commit some unforced errors, especially in the second and third games, but that happened because she was pushed by Sindhu and had to stretch the limits of possibility; she had to create crazy angles with a minor flick of her wrist, sending the shuttle right or left, as if it understood her will. This is liable to fail sometimes.

Fighting Sindhu

Sindhu fought, though. She displayed her fighting spirit, and her skill — she won a spectacular point at 6-14 when she lifted three powerful shots by Marin and got the point with what could be only described as an overhead lob.

The crowd got deeply involved, but the crowd was changeable in nature — the non-partisan Brazilians cheered and shouted for Sindhu when she raised her game to win a few stray points; they went crazy for Marin when the Spaniard began to play at the top of her game. The Indians continued their “Sindhu, Sindhu” and “India jeetega”, the Spaniard sang “Ole Ole Ole” and “Ca-Ro-Leen, Ca-Ro-Leen”.

Final game

In the third game, again, Marin quickly went 6-1 up; she, again, had to win those points with some sublime skills, for Sindhu has played wonderfully well the whole week.

The Spaniard continuously sent Sindhu towards the sides with her deftly-placed smashes or angled drives; then, having created empty space on Sindhu’s court, she would place or smash the winners.

Sindhu seemed down, but she came back — she won four in a row to go from 4-9 to 8-9. Then, at 8-10, Sindhu smashed hard straight at Marin, and it was 9-10. She made it 10-10 with possibly the best rally of the match — beautiful lifts near the net by the two, great forehand drops by Marin from the back of the court. It was magic.

When, with Marin leading 11-10, the players changed sides, the momentum snapped for Sindhu. She began to make errors, and Marin lifted her game. The Spaniard smashed at Sindhu’s backhand, making her move to the edge and then hitting winners. She earned six match points when, with a drop to Sindhu’s forehand, she got an easy shuttle and hit a perfectly angled drop. 

The Spaniard won, the Indian lost, but the badminton was beyond belief.