PV Sindhu threw away a 11-3 lead in the decider to go down 21-16, 5-21, 16-21 in the final of the 2024 Malaysia Masters Super 500, with world no. 7 Wang Zhi Yi of China taking the crown. It represented a missed opportunity for Sindhu, who was bidding for her first BWF World Tour title since July 2022, where she had beaten the same opponent to win the Singapore Open.
However, the week in Malaysia represents a good outing for Sindhu, who's struggled in her comeback trail since returning from injury in February, reaching only two quarterfinals of the six tournaments she took part in, before this runner-up finish.
Sindhu had played a full 88 additional minutes (the length of her semifinal win over Busanan Ongbamrungphan) than Wang Zhi Yi ahead of the game, but started quite well. The Indian was moving quite well all over the court, retrieving all of Wang's clever strokes before ramping up the aggression with shots into her opponent's body. She took a 6-4 lead, and kept up the pace to lead 11-9 at the interval, winning the point with a trademark cross-court smash. Sindhu then won five of the next six points as Wang struggled with the drift and Sindhu kept employing the smash into her Chinese opponent's body. Wang then profited of a couple of Sindhu errors to prevent the Indian from running away with it, but there was little to be done as Sindhu closed out the first game 21-16 with another smash into Wang.
Sindhu was in a dominant position but unravelled in the second game, as she struggled to come to terms with the drift on the far side of the court. The Indian's smashes were now going wide, with her unable to employ the tactics that worked so well in the first game. Wang led 11-3 at the interval, and Sindhu effectively gave up after a couple more errors, with an erratic display that saw her lose 5-21, barely proving a contest to her Chinese opponent as she forced a decider.
Sindhu was now back to her favoured near side of the court and took full advantage, the topsy-turvy nature of the game on display as Sindhu looked aggressive and in control with Wang now rattled as she was unable to deal with Sindhu's height advantage in the smashes and the Indian's reach working well in all the strokeplay near the net. Sindhu had a 11-3 advantage going into the interval, but the change of ends, coupled with her exertions from the week came home to roost.
Wang won the next five points with a mixture of precise lifts to the backcourt and tired returns from Sindhu. However, the margin was still in the Indian's favour, who stemmed the flow of points with some clever diagonals. Sindhu's errors began piling up as Wang levelled things at 13-13, before the roar of the crowd signalled the Chinese player taking the lead. Sindhu attempted to stay in the long rallies, but was visibly tiring as she stretched to retrieve Wang's cleverly directed shots. Wang was forcing error after error, and it was only a matter of time, as Sindhu collapsed into a pit of flicks that went wide and lofts that went long. It was the latter in the final point, as Wang erupted in celebration with Sindhu losing out 21-16, 5-21, 16-21.
Despite the loss, it was a creditable outing from Sindhu, who reached her first final in over a year, and showed glimpses of her best self, which ought to bode well for the Paris Olympics in a couple of months.
You can relive the match as it happened, below.