The long way back to the top: The story of Sindhu’s Tokyo triumph

Winning any major sports title is hard, but winning it when someone is 31 years old and coming off a long slump is even harder. But that is exactly what PV Sindhu did at the Japan Open 2026. Before this tournament, her last trophy came back in December 2024 at the Syed Modi International. For 19 months, she went without winning a single title. Many critics and fans thought her career was almost over, especially after a series of early-round exits and physical issues.

Yet, she managed to win the BWF Super 750 crown in Tokyo. This victory made her the first Indian player to ever win the Japan Open title in its 43-year history. It also made her the oldest woman to win a tournament at the Super 750 level. The win was not just luck; it required a complete overhaul of her mindset and her physical training after a major injury.

The injury, the doubts and a chat with Virat Kohli

The lowest point of Sindhu's recent career happened in September 2025. During a training session, she suffered a torn toe ligament. This injury forced her to stop playing for the rest of that season. Her doctor, Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, ordered three full months of complete rest from badminton-court activities to protect the foot. For an athlete like Sindhu, being told to sit at home is incredibly mentally exhausting. During those weeks of rest, self-doubt started to grow. She thought, she was getting older, her body was breaking down, and the wins had dried up long before the injury.

At that specific point, Sindhu decided to seek advice from outside the badminton circle. She reached out to Indian cricket icon Virat Kohli. Kohli is someone who understands what it feels like to carry massive national expectations while going through a long, public lean patch in form. Sindhu sent him a text message. Kohli responded within a few minutes, and the next day, they met up in Bengaluru. Sindhu was accompanied by her husband, Venkata Datta Sai.

While the exact details of the conversation remain private between them, the core message was clear. Kohli told her about his own past struggle when he went years without scoring an international century. He advised her to stop worrying about the trophies, the rankings, and the media talk. He told her that she needed to rediscover the baseline joy of just playing the sport, rather than focusing on the pressure of winning.

This conversation shifted how Sindhu viewed her rehabilitation. Instead of rushing back to the court to chase points, she and her husband booked a trip to the Exos Sports Performance facility in Atlanta, USA. There, she worked quietly with three specialist trainers: Wayne, Tim, and Rayan, to rebuild her physical strength from scratch. The focus was no longer on immediate results, but on getting fit and playing with a free mind.

Challenges on the court in Tokyo

When Sindhu arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium for the 2026 Japan Open, she was ranked world number 12. The draw was tough, featuring many of the top-ranked women's singles players. The observers noticed a clear difference in her style of play. In her earlier matches in 2025, she often looked anxious on court, hitting risky shots early in rallies and making easy unforced errors.

In Tokyo, her tactics changed. She played with far more patience. In the semifinals, she faced China's Chen Yufei. Before this match, Chen had beaten Sindhu five consecutive times. Sindhu broke that losing streak by winning the match 21-19, 21-10, showing a level of tactical discipline she had lacked in recent months

In the final, she came up against home favourite and world’s number three Akane Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi is known for her defensive skills and her ability to retrieve almost any shot. If an athlete tries to power their way through her, with constant smashes, they usually exhaust themselves. Sindhu chose not to rely only on her trademark power smashes. Instead, she used slow drops and deep clears to make Yamaguchi move across the full length of the court.

The turning point of the opening game came right after the mid-game interval. Trailing 10-11, the two players engaged in a gruelling 36-shot rally. In the past, Sindhu might have lost her patience mid-rally and gone for a low-percentage smash. This time, she stayed in the point, kept her calm, and eventually won it to level things at 11-11. That specific rally completely broke Yamaguchi's momentum, allowing Sindhu to storm ahead into a 16-12 lead. Even though Yamaguchi fought all the way back to tie the game at 17-17, Sindhu kept her nerve when it mattered most. She reeled off four of the next five points to take the opening game 21-17. She carried that same calm approach into the second game, using sharp net play to wrap up the match in straight games, 21-17, 21-17.

Significance of the win and future plans

This win alters several records in Indian sports history. Sindhu is now the first Indian player from any category to win the Japan Open Title since the tournament began 43 years ago. It also ended her seven-year wait for a "Major" title on the tour, with her last big victory coming at the 2019 World Championships.