PV Sindhu looks beyond French Open defeat, focuses on improvement

Paris: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu on Sunday said there was still plenty of room for improvement despite reaching the final of the French Open, a Super 750 badminton tournament.

Sindhu put up a spirited fight before going down 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 to Olympic champion and world No. 1 An Se Young of South Korea to finish runner-up at the USD 950,000 tournament.

“I’m happy with this, but there’s a lot of space, a lot of room still there. So I’m looking forward to it,” said Sindhu, who won the Japan Open Super 750 title in July.

Reflecting on her match against An Se Young, Sindhu said winning the opening game was important but admitted that she could not sustain her advantage in the deciding game.

“I fought for every point, and of course, I could win the first game, and I was happy about it,” she said.

Sindhu felt the match turned in her opponent’s favour after the scores were level in the second game.

“In the third set, I felt that I should have maintained the lead from 8-5. But unfortunately, she converted that into 11-9, and then we changed courts. That’s where I felt the difference was,” she said.

The Indian shuttler, however, said there were several positives to take from the contest and that she would work on the areas that needed improvement.

Against a top player like An Se Young, Sindhu said, maintaining intensity throughout the match was crucial.

“When you’re playing with the top athletes, you have to be at your 100 per cent on every single point. I know it’s not going to be easy, and you have to fight for every point,” she said.

Sindhu also pointed to the long rallies, saying she could have changed the outcome had she converted more of them into points.

She acknowledged that the drift on one side of the court affected her game to some extent, leading to a few unforced errors, but said adapting to such conditions was part of the sport.

“It’s part of the game. We need to control it no matter what,” she said.