CWG 2022: Zen-like Sindhu seeks singles gold after mixed team defeat

Come to think of it, what's left for her to achieve? Is there any tournament where Sindhu she hasn't a medal to her name? Two Olympic medals, two Asian Games medals, four Commonwealth Games medals and five World Championships medals among an abundance of glorious performances.

Still, if you observe her closely there is an innate hunger for more. More top finishes, more eminence. Naturally, she was expecting the CWG mixed team gold late on Tuesday evening. After all, the India were the defending champions in the event. A silver, therefore, seemed to be below the expectation she had. "I am happy, but unfortunately we could not make it to gold," Sindhu said after India lost 1-3 to Malaysia in the mixed team gold medal match. The loss rankled Sindhu because she did her bit by vanquishing Goh Jin Wei in the women's singles 21-17, 22-20, but the rest couldn't come up with their 'A Game' on the day.

The first three matches of the tie involved India's vaunted men's doubles pair of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, Sindhu, and World Championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth in the men's singles. The Indian camp was actually expecting to wrap up the gold medal after the first three matches itself. "We fielded a very strong team for the final. Just look at the first three matches. Maybe, it just wasn't our day," Sindhu said. Quite unexpectedly, Satwik and Chirag didn't ever find their famed "top gear" and lost 18-21, 15-21 to Aaron Chia Teng Fong and Soh Wooi Yik. Sindhu then brought the tie to level terms, but despite a great performance, Srikanth couldn't get past world No. 42 Ng Tze Yong, losing 19-21, 21-6, 16-21. With Malaysia leading 2-1, the onus to get India back in the tie was on the women's doubles pair