SINGAPORE – As far as giants go, they do not come taller in the badminton women’s singles circuit than India’s 1.79m P. V. Sindhu, who has a 2019 world title and an Olympic silver (Rio 2016) and bronze (Tokyo 2020) to match her stature.
For five years since their first encounter in 2019, Sindhu has towered over Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min in their head-to-head record, earning four wins without conceding a game.
That all changed on Nov 21, when world No. 13 Yeo put aside her 16cm height deficit and produced consistently high-quality badminton to break the hoodoo. She won 21-16, 17-21, 23-21 after a 69-minute match in the US$1.15 million (S$1.55 million) China Masters round of 16 at the Shenzhen Arena.
Showing how much the victory meant to her, Yeo screamed and slumped to the ground clenching her fists as she progressed to the Nov 22 quarter-finals, where she will meet Thailand’s world No. 10 Supanida Katethong.
“I’m happy to have another breakthrough for myself. Sindhu is tall and has a good smash, so I have to be wise with my shots to restrict her as much as I can, while I attack as well,” said the 25-year-old Singaporean, who had beaten Hong Kong’s Happy Lo 21-7, 21-18 in the first round on Nov 20.
In her first win against Sindhu, Yeo seized the initiative from the start to put her more illustrious rival on the back foot with some delicate net shots and disguised drops. She was 12-7 up in the opening game, before the 29-year-old Indian fought back to 15-15.
But with sparring partner Vega Nirwanda in her corner to motivate and remind her “to be brave and not to follow certain habits”, the Singaporean remained calm to take six of the next seven points to clinch her first-ever game against Sindhu.
The roles were reversed in the second game as Sindhu raced to a 10-5 lead before Yeo levelled at 16-16, only to lose five of the next six points as the match went to a decider.
Putting her long reach to good use, Sindhu built a 13-9 advantage as it looked like normalcy had resumed. But Yeo had other ideas, changing her strategy to include body shots in her repertoire.
She also rode her luck, as Sindhu was up 13-10 when she used up her challenges after two unsuccessful attempts.
Yeo then won five straight points, and was successful in her own challenge by a whisker for a cross-court net shot. That gave her a fourth match point, which was finally converted after a tight net shot set up a smash which her 19th-ranked rival returned into the net.
While she has not won a title in 2024, Yeo has been consistent since the agonising three-game loss to Japan’s Aya Ohori in the Paris Olympics round of 16 in August, reaching the quarter-finals in five out of seven tournaments. The purple patch has also helped her climb to a career-high world No. 13 this week.
In 2024, she has also beaten four top-10 players in South Korea’s An Se-young, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, China’s Han Yue and Indonesia’s Gregoria Tunjung.
Said Yeo: “Today I was able to adapt to Sindhu’s shots and stayed calm to avoid making mistakes. I believe I can be a top-10 player and I have been using the Olympics as motivation to become better because I don’t want to let that defeat bring me down.”
National singles coach Kelvin Ho said Yeo has been playing well with her speed and good technique, making it difficult for opponents to predict her shots.
“She still needs to work on crucial moments, when it requires her to have killer shots but cut down on unforced errors, especially during high-pressure scenarios,” added Ho, who will become coach of the national training squad in 2025.
South Korean Kim Ji-hyun, former coach of Sindhu and Supanida, will take over as women’s singles coach.
In the opening round on Nov 19, Singapore’s top men’s singles player Loh Kean Yew could not end his wretched winless run against Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, who won 21-17, 19-21, 21-11 for his eighth straight victory over Loh.
