The record books will note that World Championship silver medallist PV Sindhu lost the French Open Superseries semi-final against Akane Yamaguchi on Saturday rather tamely.

Tamely would be an understatement given the fact that Yamaguchi dominated the proceedings from 14-14 in the opening game till the end and saving one match point before the eventual surrender was the only positive Sindhu could take from the performance.

Not many who watched the initial exchanges between the two would have predicted such an outcome for Sindhu against a player she had beaten in their last three outings.

But at 14-14, Yamaguchi suddenly increased the tempo of the rallies and began playing a lot sharper and Sindhu had no answer to the change in tactics.

Yamaguchi took 13 points in a row to first clinch the opening game and then open up a 6-0 lead in the second and there was a definitive pattern to her play. Her strokes were flatter and she played with a faster hand speed, while Sindhu was barely keeping the shuttle in play with little incisiveness as she lost 21 of the 23 points.

Same flaw

It was the same flaw in Sindhu’s game that Nozomi Okuhara had exploited in the epic world championship final where there was very little to separate both the players in that 110-minute encounter. While the eventual champion played sharper strokes, the Indian was guilty of playing the looping drops that were easy to retrieve while she failed to execute any of her trademark smashes.

Despite that, the slower conditions kept her in the hunt in Glasgow. But on Saturday, the fast courts in Paris meant that any of those weak strokes were punished severely.

It is not that Sindhu or the coaching staff doesn’t understand the problem. Soon after the World Championship, the world No 2 worked on her hand speed and the advantages were seen in the Korea Superseries where she beat Okuhara to avenge the Glasgow loss.

But she was guilty of playing the soft strokes against Chen Yufei in the first round of Denmark Open and once again in Paris against Yamaguchi. And it was always going to be difficult to defend them on these fast courts.

“I tried to give my best,” Sindhu told reporters after the match. “In the first game it was 14-14 and then I gave her continuous points. I think my strokes were going mid-court and she was able to finish the shuttle.

“I could have played better at the start of the second game. I could have put the shuttle in the court more but there were too many unforced errors and overall it wasn’t my day.

“Yamaguchi’s defence is very good. I have seen her play in many matches and her defence is very good. She was taking all my smashes today. I could have mixed it up but overall I was playing more attacking. I felt I should have changed a bit more especially in the second half of the first game a little more but overall she played well,” she added.

Playing catch-up

Sindhu did try to mix things up in the second game and even tried to prolong the rallies. But that made little difference as the pace at which Yamaguchi returned the shuttle only forced the Indian to play catch-up and she ended up making more errors in the bargain.

“Nothing worked for me. Where I could have got points, with my tap and smashes, I was making mistakes,” Sindhu said, adding the near flawless game of Yamaguchi added to the pressure on her.

In Tai Tzu Ying, Ratchanok Intanon, Yamaguchi and even Chen Yufei, Sindhu is going to face players who are shorter, fast movers on the court and rely on their quicker hands and sharp strokes and she would have to address this issue at the earliest in order to consistently win against these players.