PV Sindhu's Attempt at a Hat-Trick of Badminton Medals Ends with round of 16 Loss in Paris

It was a sad day for Indian badminton in the Paris Olympics on Thursday, 1st August. Following the departure of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy- Chirag Shetty and HS Pranoy, India’s most successful shuttler in the Olympics Games - PV Sindhu got eliminated as well. Playing against China’s 6th seed He Bing Jiao, Sindhu stumbled, losing in straight games at the La Chapelle Arena’s Court. This was the first time in her career that PV Sindhu was not able to bring home a medal from the Summer Games.

This was the same court where Satwik and Chirag had been knocked out before and the hard luck haunted Sindhu as well. She lost 19-21, 14-21 in just 56 minutes, descending short of her pursuit of her historic third gold medal in Paris. On Thursday, the 6th overperformed her clearly.

The opening game was ferocious between the Tokyo Olympics rivals. Sindhu employed her reach to apply pressure on Jiao, while Jiao countered with an array of illusive shots and powerful smashes. Although Sindhu fell behind initially, she made a strong comeback by forcing Jiao into errors at the net. Jiao, striving with the wind, lost control over her front-court pushes and surrendered several points. The game was closely contested throughout, but Jiao managed to pull ahead at the end with aggressive body smashes and strategic drop shots to Sindhu’s forehand side.       

As a result, Sindhu narrowly lost the first game 19-21 despite a determined effort. The struggle persisted into the second game, where she fell behind 2-8. The key difference in the first half of the second game was defense, with He Bng Jiao successfully countering all of Sindhu’s smashes. Sindhu, on the other hand, struggled with the court’s pace, leading to several errors and long shots. Jiao continued to raise her performance, ultimately outplaying Sindhu and achieving victory in straight games.